Collisions
by AlmeidasGirl
Summary: When past and present collide Cameron must decide. Who will be her future? HouseCameron, CameronJoe. Rated M for chapter 10
1. Chapter 1

Top-to-bottom-examination; just like she had learned in medical school all those years ago.

Today she felt like being back in school again, having spent almost 5 hours down at the clinic, examining one patient after another.

Her mood had turned from something one could call okay to something beyond annoyance.

But she had never been a person, who would take out her moods on others. True, she was an emotional person, 'a little whiney schoolgirl', one grumpy doctor might say, but she always tried her best to hide those moods. Some days it was harder than usual, and today was on of those days.

They had just discharged a patient last night and instead of catching up on some paperwork she was in the clinic, doing the 'grumpy' doctor's clinic hours. Frankly, she didn't really mind at all, since that meant she wouldn't be sitting in the conference room watching Chase doing some crossword-puzzle or House snarking at Foreman.

"Take two of those every day, starting tomorrow and come back for a check up in about two weeks," she said handing the patient a script, smiling slightly. Rubbing her neck she decided she could squeeze in another patient before lunch.

The nurse, Susan, if Cameron recalled it right, handed her another file.

"He is already in Exam 2," Susan said

Cameron nodded absently, turning around sharply when someone called her name. Dr Cuddy was just coming out of her office walking towards her, caring a rather huge pile of folders.

"Where is Dr. House?"

"Uh, no idea. I think you could be lucky if you check his office, though," she offered.

Cameron smiled slightly at the dean of medicine and then excused herself to see the next patient. She would try to stay out of this little "thing" that was going on between House and Cuddy. Sometimes it seemed like they were a long-married couple, but had decided, a while ago, to not care about that anymore. She had spent way too much time with having a crush on House anyway.

She took a deep breath, as though she wanted to rid those thoughts out of her head.

"I am Dr.Cameron…uhm, you came here today, because you ….," she said more to herself than to the patient, while closing the door, not looking up from the patients chart, she was studying is symptoms. Closing the file she took the chair from the corner and sat down in front of the patient.

"…fell of a ladder this morning, Mr. … uh …," words stopped coming out of her mouth when her glance fell on the patient's personal information. When she looked up, she saw the man looking at her, a friendly smile all over his face.

"Hey Ally."

House stepped out of the elevator, seeing the clinic being stuffed with snotty nosed, aching limbed patients made him even angrier at Cuddy. But he probably was angrier at himself for letting her find him so easily. Sometimes she was like an executioner, and most of the time he was her victim and her slaughter almost always was about to get him do his clinic duties by himself not by one of his ducklings.

At the nurses-station, he took five folders and skimmed through them, trying to find the least boring, yet least disgusting case. Putting the other folders back on the pile, someone grabbed the designated folder from his hand and handed him another one.

"The patient's already in exam one," Brenda said smiling her special smile that she probably saved only for him.

"Oh goody," he smiled, not even bothering to hide the sarcasm dripping from his voice, limping his way to the examination room.

Something caught his attention as he passed exam two, someone was in there. Peeking into the room, he saw Cameron in there with a patient. She was hugging him. This was definitely taking the whole caring business she had too far. House smirked, either she knew the guy, or he was about to die. He watched them for a few seconds, she turned towards the door and quickly slipped into the other room.

"Uh, hey …. Are you my doctor?" a female voice behind him almost screamed when he closed the door.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah … shhh." House said, moved over to the blinds and peeked outside.

Cameron was talking to Brenda for a moment and then went to get a wheelchair from beside the desk, which she pushed back into the exam room, only to come out again two minutes later with her patient. While she talked to him, House could see something in her face, he wasn't sure what it was, but she most likely hadn't hugged him because he was dying, well, maybe he was, but Cameron also knew this guy.

But what really caught his attention, was the way he looked at her.

When she moved towards the elevator he pulled back and threw the folder for his patient on the table next to them. He left the room without a backward glance, not seeing the confused look of his patient.

"Where did she take him?"

"Who?" Brenda did not even turn around.

"Dr. Cameron," House was getting impatient.

"I don't think …."

House stopped her mid-sentence, "I know you don't. Where?"

She gave him one of her looks, "What about your patient?"

House sighed, "She is an idiot. Give her an aspirin and send her home."

Again, Brenda gave him the look.

"She is wearing new shoes. High-heels, to be exact. She probably wore them all day and now is wondering about her aching feet? I say she's an idiot."

"Dr. Cameron went to Radiology to get an x-ray," Brenda said exhausted.

"See, that was easy," House replied and then huddled over to the elevators.

While waiting for the lift, he smirked. Clinic duty was boring; he was much more intrigued by finding out more about Cameron's mysterious patient.

Cuddy wouldn't probably see it this way, but then again, he would be in radiology, not his usual hiding place. Maybe he could find some place to hang out down there for the rest of the day.

The elevator stopped half way down to radiology, and Wilson entered.

"Where are you heading?" he asked and pushed the button for the second floor.

"Down." House simply stated.

"Radiology? Why? You don't have a patient right now."

"Well, Jimmy I hate to break it to you, but I met someone else. I've been seeing him for almost a month now, and I am soooo in love," House emphasized the last word while winking at him.

The door opened and House started to move, Wilson leaned out after him.

"Did you tell him that he needs to give up his life in order to take care of yours?"

"Jealous much?" House had turned around and wiggled his eyebrows.

House found the nurses-station empty, so he walked around the counter and skimmed through the folders.

"Dr. House, how can I help you today?" a voice behind him appeared so he got up and faced a nurse, Lucifer Lucy.

House cursed himself for not checking before which nurse would be working, since Lucy was a tough one. She knew him too well, he had to handle her with care. He made a mental note, to bribe Cuddy into hiring some new nurses soon, much younger and much more naïve.

"I am looking for the chart of Dr. Cameron's patient." He said turning back to the pile of folders.

"And why is that?" She stemmed her arms on her hips, hoping to show some authority, and if House would care about something like that he probably would have been intimidated by that gesture.

"Don't tell her…" he started lowering his voice, "… but Dr. Cameron is under supervision the next month. We got some pretty bad reports about her unethical and rude behaviour towards the patients lately."

Lucy gave him a suspicious look.

"It is true. I've to supervise every one of her actions at work. Direct order from the man."

"And if I would call Dr. Cuddy she would confirm this?" Lucy said, unsure whether she was asking him or simply paraphrasing.

"Of course, Lucy. Why would I … ha, got it." House held up the manila folder, then hooked his cane on his arm and flipped the chart open.

He slowly skimmed through the medical exam; Cameron had ordered several X-rays with strong suspicion of broken ribs, torn ligaments and a broken wrist. Also he has lots of bruises on his thorax and respiratory distress.

He concluded it was nothing lethal, flipped the page and took a look at the personal information but nothing rang any bells by him. He had never heard her mentioning a Joe Martin.


	2. Chapter 2

Cameron was leaning against the wall next to the door, watching the nurse prepare Joe for the X-ray.

It had been almost 15 years since she had last seen him. After she had yelled at him to never come back into her life again; that had been at her husband's funeral.

It seemed like a lifetime had passed since.

While they had gone down to radiology he had told her he had just moved to Princeton a week ago. He had quietly said that he came around to visit her two days ago, but just stayed in his car, not sure if she would want to see him.

Now, as she watched him, she knew she had missed him, greatly, maybe she had been wrong to cut him out of her life so long ago. But at that time it had been too painful for him to be near.

Cameron felt she would be cheating on her late husband.

Feeling the tears well up in her eyes she took a deep breath, but it was futile so she closed her eyes and went outside on the hallway.

Slowly sliding down the wall, she put her face into her hands and took a few deep breaths.

It had been a while since she felt so many emotions and she wasn't sure she still knew how to deal with it.

Last time she had felt like this was when she had left … there. Him.

Inhaling deeply and breathing out slowly she pushed away the pain and got up again.

This time it would be different.

While Cameron was standing in the hallway, pretty much staring into the void, she didn't notice House standing only a few yards away, hiding around a corner.

Watching her.

He had been on his way back to his office when he had seen her standing out in the hall, deciding he could probably find out something more so he remained in his hiding spot.

They had been standing there for almost ten minutes now, and House was about to leave when the door opened.

"Ally?"

House saw the nurse coming out, with Joe in the wheelchair.

Cameron quickly turned around, trying to hide her tears, wiping them away swiftly. Just a second later she turned back to them, a smile all over her face, not a slight hint of her tears left.

House was impressed on how easy she seemed to block out her feelings lately.

"Here are the x-rays." The nurse handed her an envelope and Cameron took out the sheets, looking at them.

Cameron narrowed her eyes and looked at the x-ray for a few seconds.

"From what I can see now, you have broken three ribs … uh …" she fiddled out two more sheets and took a quick look at them too, "….and uh … you probably tore a ligament in your left foot."

She put the x-rays back into the envelope and handed them back to the nurse.

"I want to do a CT-scan, blood test for a SED-rate and a CBC."

The nurse nodded, and then went to the nurses-station.

"We're going to have to admit you Joe." Cameron said kneeling down in front of him. House stepped a bit forward to hear better, leaning against the wall to relieve some pressure off of his leg.

"Your temperature is a little up, which could be caused by one of the broken ribs sticking into the lung-tissue."

"Okay." Joe just nodded and looked down.

"Hey, you are going to be okay. " Cameron took his face into her hands and Joe started to smile.

House was surprised on how soft and friendly her voice sounded. He had almost forgotten this about Cameron.

She had grown colder during the last six months; it was like her heart had been shattered and someone had just provisionally glued it back together with ice. He couldn't tell when this had started but he was sure the whole thing with Tritter had done its part.

No, this was the Cameron, she used to be two years ago.

"Thank you, Ally." Joe answered and slightly kissed her thumb.

When she got up and turned half way, she left House almost speechless. Her whole expression was so different, from anything he had seen before. House couldn't quite define what it was but it was definitely new to him.

House forced himself to look back to the guy. He definitely wasn't her brother, and he sure wasn't her boyfriend. How would she have managed to get one, when he had kept her busy the last couple of weeks?

And calling her 'Ally' excluded any recent acquaintance, and her facial expression proofed that fact.

So what was left? Was he another family member? An old friend from her past?

There was something more to it, and he knew where he could get that very information.

Stepping back he turned, limping towards the elevator. Half way his beeper went off and he read the message: 'New case'.

Okay, so this will have to wait, he thought as he entered the elevator.

It was an hour later when she entered Joe's room with the test results. Her beeper had gone off 40 minutes ago, at first she had tried to ignore it, since she knew House had a new case. After twenty minutes she had phoned Chase, telling him she was with a patient and that she would be there when she was done.

She was wondering why House hadn't appeared yet, he normally had a knack for tracking down wayward fellows, she was glad she could stay with Joe for now.

"Okay, so I got your test results back." She closed the glass door behind her, and stopped in front of the bed, taking his chart. She flipped it open and then went around the bed and sat down.

She took a deep breath and started, "Your SED-rate is elevated, your temperature is up to 102.5 and the CT scan confirmed that one of the ribs has pierced some lung tissue, which causes inflammation."

"Okay. What are we going to do?" Joe smiled slightly.

"We are going to give you some meds for the inflammation and I scheduled you for surgery in … uh… three hours." Cameron said and closed his chart.

He frowned at her.

"Don't worry, Joe. It's a minor procedure. You'll probably be able to leave the hospital by the end of the week." She smiled at him, and took his hand into hers. Now he looked up and nodded slightly.

She got up and turned to leave when she felt his fingers encircle her wrist, holding her back.

Cameron turned around, looking at his hand and then up, to see him smiling,

"I missed you… I missed you so much." He whispered.

The tears immediately started to fill her eyes to the brim. She looked down but when she felt his hand squeezing hers, looked up again. He was still smiling.

How much did she wish all this feelings would go away, leave her for good. She had missed him too, and yet she could not speak it out loud.

"Ally? You okay?"

She closed her eyes for a second. It had been so long since anyone had called her that. Way too long, she thought and almost laughed out loud at how ridiculous she was acting.

'Just open your damn eyes and tell him, you missed him already,' the voice inside her head yelled at her.

She opened her eyes slowly, a slight smile forming on her face she opened her mouth but was interrupted by her beeper. Taking a deep breath she whispered a sorry and Joe let go of her hand.

'Conference Room. NOW.' was all it read. Taking another deep breath and put the beeper back into her pocket, then turned around to Joe, "Sorry, I need to go."

Joe watched her for a second and then nodded.

"I am going to check on you later." She smiled friendly and then left the room.

While she walked down the hallway towards the stairs, she cursed herself for acting like this.

Acting like she was a teenager.

She had been in love with Joe so deeply, and seeing him today made her realize that she still was, and why she had fallen in love with him in the first place.

He had been the one.

They had shared so much during the time her husband had been in the hospital. And that was what was holding her back. Because looking at Joe, talking to him meant seeing all the suffering she had went through again.

The guilt and the shame.

That was why she sent him away after the death of his best friend. She couldn't stand it then, how could she pretend to stand it now?

She was still in thoughts when she entered the conference room. Chase and Foreman gave her a look while she sat down.

"What?"

"Nothing, its just … House is pissed."

"Why? Didn't you tell him I was with a patient?"

"Yeah, of course I did, but he is House … why would he care about it?" Chase said and looked at Foreman.

She was about to reply when the door to House's office flew open and he stepped out.

"Ah, Dr.Cameron. Did you finally manage to honour us with your presence?"

She inhaled sharply.

"So, boys, would you mind to getting her up to speed while I fetch my coffee?" He looked at Chase and limbed over to the sink.

While Chase presented the case they had gotten an hour earlier, he turned around, sipping at his coffee and watched his female duckling. He could tell she did a good job at hiding her true thoughts, if he didn't know what was up with her, he probably wouldn't have noticed at all.

Ten minutes later they had been through every possibility for now,

"Okay, Foreman will do the MRI and the LB. Chase go take a better history, the first one sucked. And Cameron can take over the blood tests. Now go and make daddy proud."

He walked over to his office but before he reached it, he noticed Cameron still standing in the middle of the room so he turned around, eyes locking with hers.

"Uh, didn't you understand? Blood tests. You'll probably need blood to run those … and uh … what is it called? Ah, that's right. A lab? Need one of those too, can't run tests without one." he mocked turning around hoping to have ended the conversation there.

He was wrong.

"I was actually hoping I could talk to you." She said quiet with a steady voice.

"Yeah, well, I was hoping for a threesome with Angelina and Heidi, but sometimes our hopes get crushed," he said making a face.

Ignoring his last sentence she stepped nearer, "I want to take over a patient's treatment."

"Yeah, that is why you should be in the lab doing those tests."

"I meant a patient from Pulmonology."

"No." House simply stated and opened his office door.

But Cameron refused to give up and went after him

"You got Chase and Foreman, I am expandable. It is likely that this case doesn't even have anything to do with Immunology."

"I am not going to change my mind. I am your attendant." He turned around again and hoped the conversation would be over. And just a second later he heard that door closing again.

House sat down on his chair, angry.

Cameron was his duckling, she belonged to his team, a team that took only the most bizarre cases, so why would she take over a patient with something as boring as some broken ribs, even if she knew him?

He really should go find out more about that, so getting up he went out on the balcony, limped over to Wilson's office and unlocked it with the key, he had made three months previously, unbeknownst to Wilson.

So when Wilson entered his locked office a couple of minutes later, he was confused for a second, but then realized that House probably had a key for every room in the hospital by now.

"You should really hire someone to clean out this desk. There is so much junk in there. And I am not even talking about this … thing you are hiding in the closed drawer." House wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"What do you want House?" Wilson asked and slumped into one of the chairs, since House had occupied his.

"You are annoyed. Damn, if I had known that it is already this time of month I would have waited a couple more days." House mocked and closed the drawer he had just inspected.

"Sorry, I just had a rough day." Wilson wiped over his face and sighed.

"Do you want to lay down and have me read you a story?"

"I … I don't think you've left any of your playboys here." Wilson joked.

House made a face and leaned back, grinning at him.

"What?"

"Nothing. I just want to hang out with my pal."

"Yeah, of course." Wilson said sarcastic and got up, putting on his coat.

"Going home?"

"Nope, got a house call." He replied.

On that House gave him a smug look and winced exaggerated.

Wilson just sighed and turned to go.

"Okay, okay. Do you know anything about Cameron's patient?"

The oncologist turned around; obviously House had gotten his attention.

"Uh … no." Wilson answered carefully.

House sighed and explained,

"She asked to be excused from our current case to take over treatment of another patient with some broken ribs."

"Huh. She'd rather treat a patient with boring symptoms then to follow orders from her bastard of a boss? That is hard to understand." Wilson's voice was dripping with sarcasm.

House did not respond to that so Wilson added,

"Maybe she just needs a time out from you."

"She knows the guy." House suddenly said.

"Who is it?"

"That I do not know yet. All I know is that his name is Joe Martin."

"And you are coming to me, because … ?"

"You two are the most caring people on earth hence you must be in some sort of a club. And … I think you two are talking a lot lately."

"What does that have to do with …?" he shook his head and continued, "Personally I think you shouldn't put your nose into this, but that is just me and my stupid common sense."

"Yah, yah. Whatever. Do you know anything?"

Wilson looked at him, about to tell him he would leave when he got a thought, "Joe? His name is Joe?"

"Yeah."

"Well, Cameron mentioned that name once."

"Hah, I knew it. You are the bestest friend Jimmy." House said smiling brightly, with a girly voice.

"She told me that he was the best friend of her husband." Wilson said and then frowned.

"What? There is more to it, isn't it?"

"I am not feeling good about this House."

"Oh come on, what is it?" House literally stared at him now.

"Okay, I know this will be hard for you, but please try to keep that to yourself or at least do not mention that to her."

"Good lord, what do you think of me?"

Wilson looked at him, with raised eyebrows. But when House's smile vanished and he nodded serious he continued, "She and Joe had fallen in love while her husband was dying."

House turned his glance around and looked outside. So that was it.

And knowing Cameron she probably felt guilty about this and shut out love for the sake of her dying husband. And afterwards she couldn't bear to see him, because the only thing she would feel was guilt, House concluded without knowing how close he was with his interpretation.

"House. I am serious. Do not get involved, please do not do that to her. She's been through enough, with and without your help." Wilson said and tried to read House's expression.

House just looked at him, but did not say anything. Instead he turned and left the office.

Again, Wilson sighed, hoping he hadn't just opened Pandora's Box.

-------------------

A/N: Thank you all for your lovely comments so far. I hope you enjoy reading and please review.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

When House got back to the conference room, there was no sign of the ducklings.

So instead of going down to the clinic he could use the time until the tests were done, to do something productive.

He got himself a cup of coffee and went into his office, plonking himself down on his couch, switching on the TV he was just in time for the second half of General Hospital.

But knowing Dr. Craig had just poisoned Nikolas, he just could not concentrate, his mind constantly kept drifting away.

No, instead he kept thinking about on how he didn't know about Cameron's special friend.

When she had been hired three years ago, he thought he had her all figured out after two months; but some time ago he realized his whole neatly packaged theory about her had holes.

Huge worm-hole like holes in it; and they kept on growing bigger and bigger with every day.

She had changed so much over the last year, and she sure wasn't the little naïve schoolgirl anymore. Sometimes House wondered if she ever was.

When he heard noises from the conference room, he slowly got up dry swallowed a vicodin as he made his way through the glass doors.

"The test results are back," Foreman announced and handed him the folder. He skimmed over the numbers then looked up and closed the folder.

"Where is Cameron?"

"She had to see a patient of hers," Chase said taking the folder from House.

"Oh, really," House said, then turned to the whiteboard, and started to write.

She really went through with this. She had changed, and yes, the holes were still getting bigger.

Cameron was looking down from the observation room.

Joe was being prepared for surgery at the moment, and all she could do now, was stand there and watch. She had talked to him the whole twenty minutes before he had gone under the anaesthesia.

Leaning her forehead against the cold surface of the glass in front of her she took a few deep breaths to calm herself down.

He would be okay, in a couple more days, he would have to take care of his wound but he would live. Why was she worrying so much?

Watching the surgeon cutting into his flesh she realized he was the last part left of her past.

Of course, there were still her parents, but she had lost contact with them when she had married Matthew. And after he had died, she had cut out everyone that reminded her of that time.

Everyone.

Even Joe.

But then again he also was the connection to the better parts of her past, too. Before the tragedy of death had entered her life.

She had been young, probably too young, when her whole life had turned into a disaster. But Joe, he had been there, in the end. He had kept her breathing when she'd thought she would suffocate.

And now, he was back.

Their lives had collided again. Even though this time it seemed like it had happened without the face of death she knew that this did not mean it would not turn out to be a complete disaster again.

A dull thump-step-thump pulled her out of her thoughts.

She had already wondered when he would come to talk to her, so she lifted her head up from the glass wall, turning her head slightly, silently watching him from the corner of her eyes.

A small eternity passed between them, until he finally said something.

"How is he?"

"What to do you want House?" her voice traced a slight hint of hostility. She was not going to let him get to her.

"For starters, how about … do your damn job."

Now she looked up at him, for a few seconds she just stared at him. When she lowered her face, she took the badge out of her scrub-pocket and frowned.

"Hm, this is weird. It says 'Allison Cameron, MD'," she emphasised the last two letters to make her point.

"And this looks suspiciously like an OR," she added and looked back at him.

House had his difficulties to hide a grin, because this part of her was new, and he had to admit that he liked it. Instead he kept staring at her,

"Might be, but your medical license also says "Immunologist". Now I do not want to be a smartass here? But last time I checked that big word had nothing to do with bones, or broken ribs in particular," his voice was dripping with sarcasm.

Cameron should have been surprised, he knew about Joe, but somehow she wasn't. Of course he knew. He always did.

"Okay, look. He is a friend and I just wanted to make sure he would be okay and get the best treatment available," she said softly, though she was still wondering how much he really knew.

"Well, that is not your job. There are those women, you know, I think they are being referred to as nurses, they look after patients while we do … you know, complicated doctors stuff," he mocked. She gave him a look and he sighed adding, "and I am sure our patient wouldn't also be very pleased to find out that **my** immunologist rather wants to hang out with patients than to help cure her."

Now he handed her a folder, she hadn't noticed before. It was the patients chart.

"Foreman and Chase are currently doing some more tests. I'll expect you in the conference room in 10. Did you get that? Or do you want me to write it down for you?"

He gave her another look and then left.

Five minutes later she was entering the conference room, the folder in her right hand. When she saw his pleased look she cursed herself for the tenth time this week, for letting him get to her so easy.

But today was different, because when she sat down next to Chase, she decided she would have to do something about that.

It was not until late that evening when they finally diagnosed the patient with a rare form of leukaemia, then handed the case over to the oncology department and their job was done.

House was leaning against the balustrade on his balcony in front of the office, getting some fresh air after a long day when Cameron stepped out behind him.

"Dr.House?" she almost whispered.

"Dr.Cameron," he did not turn around, his gaze fixed on the small lights in front of him.

Princeton at night was always mesmerising.

Silence.

He pulled out his vicodin and swallowed two, hoping this would stop the pinching pain in his head and leg.

When she was still not saying anything he slowly turned around, glancing at her. Cameron was looking up at the sky, her hands deep in the pockets of her pants.

"Did you came here to swoon at the size of the sky, pondering about the purpose of life?" he grinned slightly, his left hand still placed on the balustrade.

She slowly lowered her head and locked eyes with his. Eternity passed between them, again. Now he could hear her exhausted sigh, he raised an eyebrow.

"You really have to stop this," she said almost inaudible. By trying to avoid his gaze now, she started to clench again.

'When would she stop doing that?' he thought.

"What are you talking about?"

She looked up again and just for a split of a second he thought he saw a smile, but blamed it on the light from his office, forming shadows on their faces.

"I am talking about today," she said gently, still looking at him, "He is a friend, House. You may not be able to understand what that means, but I care about him, and wanted him to be safe."

"Oh, snarky, aren't we?" House responded.

"I am not willing to let you do this. Not this time," she completely ignored his last comment, still looking at him with determined eyes.

"Okay, again, what are you talking about?" he started to get annoyed now, and wasn't trying to hide it.

"Nothing, just … stay out of my life."

"Hm, that could be a problem, you know, since we're working together."

"You know what I mean," she looked at him, looking even more tired.

About a second later she had turned and was back inside, getting her stuff and left.

And again, she had done something to surprise him. Standing up for something she wants, that was something the Cameron from a year ago would have never done. Now here she was, pulling a mini-version of himself; with all the sarcasm and witty answers to boot.

This was going to get complicated.

On her way out, she quickly grabbed her jacket and her laptop and when she walked to the elevator she noticed she was smiling.

This had gone better than she had expected it to. Actually it had been a lot better.

But she just wouldn't … couldn't let House do this to her. Not again.

It was easy for him to break her, but it always took her a long time to recover, and she wasn't sure if she would be able to do that again.

Joe was back now and this was probably the best thing that could have happened to her at this time. Maybe she was able to pick up the pieces … the pieces that once belonged together but had been ripped apart by Gregory House.

Just five minutes later she entered Joe's room where she found him awake, watching some commercials on TV.

"Hey, I think I am going to have to order the George Foreman grill now," he joked turning off the electronic device. Cameron put her jacket and her bag down on the chair next to the door and smiled at him,

"It is way past midnight, shouldn't you be sleeping?"

"Well, uhm, my physician said she would be here when I woke up and since she wasn't, I figured I should really wait for her. Who knows, she might need to tell me something important," he smirked winking at her.

"I am sorry, Joe. We had … well, to be honest my boss decided I wasn't expendable," she sighed and sat down on his bed.

"Your boss … Dr.House?"

Cameron frowned and so Joe added, "I heard the nurses talk. They said that it is a surprise you are still working for him after everything he did to you."

Cameron looked away, and stared at her shoes.

"What did he do to you?" his voice sounded so soft and caring, nothing like she had heard in a while now.

"Let's not talk about that right now, okay? How are you?" she looked up, a friendly smile on her face.

Joe looked at her, trying to figure out what she was thinking, but decided to leave the topic for now.

"I am feeling pretty good. Must be all the morphine," he said grinning.

"We are going to take you off tomorrow but I think I am going to prescribe you something for home. I'm pretty sure you can leave here on Friday."

"In that case, Dr.Cameron, would you like to go grab some dinner on … lets say, Friday?"

Joe sheepishly grinned at her.

Cameron tried to hide her smile, but then just had to laugh out loud. God, she had missed this so much.

"How about this? I am going to take you home after work on Friday and then I am going to make you some dinner," she was still laughing.

"As long as you promise me to not drink a glass of _Cabernet Sauvignon _while you are making it," he commented.

Again, she laughed out loud,

"It wasn't my fault that the tomato soup was spilled all over the carpet before we could eat."

"Yeah, but you got drunk," he teased.

"That is odd, since I remember you making me drink it, because you said it was the last one and it would get foul if we would not empty it."

Now it was Joe who started to laugh loudly, but after a few seconds started to stop and cough.

"Here," Cameron handed him a cup with water and then lifted his blanket.

Joe took a sip and put the cup back on the table,

"What are you doing?"

"I just want to check if you pulled any stitches."

Fortunately everything looked okay, and she put the bandage back on. Then she leaned back and watched him smiling at her. She had thought she had known why she had fallen in love with him in the first place. Now she was sure it was his smile. It had been the one thing that had helped her while Matthew had died. She had met Joe just a week after she had met her husband; Matthew had introduced them at a party on campus. After that they had spent a lot of time together, the three of them. When Matthew had proposed to her just a month later she said yes without even thinking about it. At that time her parents had turned from her, because they had married without them, in a small chapel out of Chicago, Joe being the only one invited.

Then things had started to take a turn for the worst. Matthew started to get sicker and she spent as much time with him as possible, as did Joe. He had been the one she clung onto while her husband died. Either she was at the hospital, or she was spending time with Joe.

As cheesy as it sounded, he had been her light at the end of the long, dark tunnel.

And now here he was, back in her life, giving her back the hope for finding love. Something she had thought she had lost forever about a year ago, when she had told House she would be happy for him being able to love, even if it wasn't her after all.

"I should let you get some sleep now," she said slightly stroked over his cheek and Joe nodded. She got up, took her stuff and went to the door, but turned around when she was half-way out.

"Joe?"

He looked up at her.

"I missed you, too."

When she arrived at her car she was still smiling. Maybe she wasn't so hopeless after all.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Thank you for all your lovely comments. I am really not sure about this one, so tell me what you think.**

* * *

It was almost eleven when House arrived at the hospital two days later.

He had spent the whole night after leaving the hospital walking around in his apartment and finally being able to fall asleep at 4 am, his leg was finally starting to hurt less or it was the half bottle of Vicodin he had taken.

Stepping inside the building he cursed himself for not taking the back entrance, of course Cuddy would be here, waiting for him to give him shit.

"Nice of you to show up eventually," she did not disappoint him, giving him one of her 'I-am-serious'- looks.

House just limped passed her seeing his escape via the elevators, decreasing his pace slightly.

"It is eleven, House. You might get away with a lot around here, but there is a line even you should not cross," her voice had started to take on a warning tone, House usually just responded to with an insulting remark about her breasts. But today, he just wanted to get to his office, and have a nap.

"And you really should … ," she looked at him, when he stepped into the elevator.

"What?" House gave up unnerved.

"You okay?"

"Sure," House pushed the button and Cuddy quickly got into the elevator.

"So, you are just not in the mood for a sarcastic remark about my outfit today?" Cuddy looked at him suspiciously.

On that House just shrugged and looked down. Cuddy watched him for a moment, then decided to leave him be for now. The elevator signalled its arrival and when House got out of the elevator, she just watched him walk to his office.

"Please, try to be in before 10 am from now on," she said but wasn't sure if he heard it, then the door closed.

House did not even bother to check if anyone was in the conference room before heading straight to his office. Once inside he closed all the blinds, turned on his iPod, selected the most appropriate band for his mood; ACDC, cranking it up as loud as he could to annoy everyone around but not as loud as it would give him a headache.

Leaning back in his chair he hoped the music also would tip everyone off to leave him alone; to let him dwell in his loneliness. He dry swallowed three pills at once, propped his legs up on the table and started to drift off.

Cameron was sitting at her desk, going through the mail, House's mail. The music had been on for over an hour now, and of course she heard it. But somehow it did not bother her at all. She even caught herself humming along every once in a while.

She was having a really good day so far, and she wondered if by her being in a good mood, someone, namely House, would have to have the exact contrary to balance it out.

Chase came in shortly after, followed by Foreman and threw a folder in front of her on the desk. Cameron looked up at him, giving him a questioning look.

"We got a case." Chase said, as he sat down at the table while Foreman poured himself a coffee. Cameron flipped the folder open.

"We think you should tell House," Foreman said, taking a sip of the dark brown fluid.

Cameron looked over the edge of her glasses, frowning.

"Well, you are the person least likely to get killed," Foreman shrugged.

"He already threw something after me, when I tried to talk to him about a patient half an hour ago," Chase said, half grinning.

Cameron scoffed and slowly got up, throwing the folder back on the conference table so it half hit Chase's arm. Then she walked around her desk and wanted to knock, but then went right in, since House probably wouldn't have heard it anyway.

"House? We got a case," her eyes tried to get used to the dark in the office, the only light coming from the conference room. He was sitting behind his chair, leaning back and his eyes closed, the constant rhythm of his chest rising told her that he was asleep so she stepped nearer. After she had turned off the music, she looked at him. He seemed so peaceful when he was asleep, like nothing bad had ever happened to him.

"House?" she slightly touched his shoulder with her hand. On hearing her voice his eyes shut open and he looked around confused, his eyes locked with hers. A long moment passed between them.

"We got a case."

House looked at her for a little longer and then nodded shortly and followed her to the conference room.

Two hours later House was just coming back from the cafeteria, after he had been offered a coffee by Wilson, unintentionally. Pushed the button of the elevator he saw Cameron walking towards the patients rooms; since their current patient was in the ICU, waiting for the test results she was supposed to do with Foreman and Chase, he figured she was on her way to this … Joe.

House couldn't tell why he was so irritated by her behaviour; that she neglected her duties of treating patients, everyone knew he should be the last one to judge such behaviour; and yet, he did. He still was her boss after all.

So when he got back to the conference room, he found Chase reading a medical journal or a comic, House could not really tell.

"What is going on here? The three of you are supposed to do the tests and yet Cameron is making googly eyes at her friend and you are sitting here … reading," House pointed on the magazine in front of Chase.

"Foreman is waiting for the results in the lab. I was called for a consult at the NICU."

"NICU? Miss your kangaroos that much, mate?" House said in the best Australian accent he could manage. Chase gave him a disgusted look.

"Get Cameron here. Tell her it is an emergency." House said and vanished into his office.

Five minutes later the door of his office flew open and Cameron came in, taking fast deep breaths.

"What is going on? Chase told me you said there was an emergency."

House now turned around in his chair, having a hard time not bursting out in laughter at this picture.

"Come again?"

"You had me paged. And Chase said the results are not back yet, so what is going on?"

Now House heard a slight hint of annoyance in her voice.

"Oh, yeah. Uh … I need you to call those guys who wrote me this letter," he said, handing her a sheet of paper and watched her while she read it. Her look turned from confusion to blank and finally to anger.

"Your phone bill? That is your emergency?" her voice was calm but her eyes spoke a very different language.

"Can't let those guys get away with that, can we?" he turned back to his computer and started to play solitaire.

He heard her inhaling slowly,

"First. I am a doctor not your secretary. Second. This is hardly an emergency and yet you had me run through the whole hospital. And third …"

She was interrupted by Foreman who had opened the door,

"The results are here."

House got up, walked towards the door, but stopped when he reached Cameron and lowered his voice,

"I would love to hear number 3 later."

Then he went out.

Maybe this day wasn't as bad as he'd thought it would turn out to be after all.

After House had vanished into the conference room, Cameron took a few very deep sharp breaths.

"Dr. Cameron? Care to join us in here?" She could hear House yell.

She took one last breath and exhaled it slowly, trying to steady herself and then went out. She sat down at the table without looking at House.

"So what else can cause the symptoms if it is neither lupus nor … death." House said looking at the whiteboard.

Everyone threw in some more theories, which House, as usual, turned down. But Cameron remained silent most of the time, staring at House, like she would be able to infect him with a painful disease by just staring at him.

How dare him treating her like this. Of course, it wasn't the first time he'd done something like it before, but, this seemed like he had not done it to get an advantage. No, this was the first time he had done it purely to annoy her. And then the fuss he made with Joe, with not letting her treat him, he was acting like a little boy who would not share his toy with other kids.

A few hours later she was sitting in the lab across Foreman who was doing some tests. Staring at the computer, hoping it would get out the results faster. She was tired and was in need of a shower, so instead of staring at the screen she got up.

"The results will take another ten minutes so I am going to take a quick shower."

Foreman just mumbled something like a yes and turned back to his microscope.

House was highly annoyed again. The little prank with Cameron hadn't brightened up his mood at all, the patient was getting worse and Cameron was acting weird. She had never neglected her duties like this. The test results had been back half an hour ago, and now he and his two male minions sat in the conference room, without her.

So, now after they had the results from the patient and had agreed to start treatment on dengue fever, he had sent the boys off and was now on his way to find his lost fellow. Of course, he knew where he would find her. Stopping next to the door, where the blinds were closed and listened. And what he heard threw him off just yet.

Cameron was laughing. And it wasn't just little giggling or something he had heard before. No, it was the kind of rare laugh you do when you are absolutely happy, he had never heard her laugh like this.

When he noticed he had closed his eyes, he cleared his throat and then threw open the glass door and stepped inside. He saw her head turning around; the smile she was wearing was stunningly and utterly gorgeous. Her whole face was glowing, but when she realized it was him standing in front of her, it immediately faded to a small forced smile.

"Be right back," she told Joe getting up from his bed.

House forced himself to look away and stepped back outside.

"What do you think you are doing?" House stared down at her, his eyes not giving away anything.

"I was checking in on a patient," Cameron replied calmly folding her arms.

"The wrong patient"

"When the results came back, I was taking a shower. When I found the message on my beeper I called Foreman and he said they could handle it," she said, her voice still steady and calm.

House sighed, and quickly glanced at Joe inside the room, he was watching them.

"But you do know Foreman is not your boss. Because I am. What I say counts," his voice had gotten a bit louder, so he took a deep breath and continued, "and when I say you are not off the case, you are not."

"What is this really about House?"

He gave her a slightly confused look.

"The patient will respond to the treatment, Foreman said the results were definitive. And all I wanted was to take care of a patient, yet here you are, behaving like a child, claiming his toy back," she stared at him, her eyes piercing his.

House looked at her for a few moments and then scoffed, "You work for me and you do what I say. This is how the system works."

With that he turned around and left her standing outside on the hallway.

She watched him vanishing into the elevator and only then noticed that she had gritted her teeth. Taking some deep breaths, again, she slowly counted to 10 (which did not work at all).

"Was that about me?" Joe asked when she stepped back inside his room.

"No. No, that was only about him and his ego. Forget about it. Just … forget about him."

How much she wished **she** could just forget about him.

"… so I thought we could have some pizza tomorrow."

Why was he acting like this? He usually did not care at all if they took over other patients, even when they had a case.

"Ally?"

"What?" Cameron turned back to hi and looked at him.

"You okay?"

"Yes, sorry. What were you saying?" she sat down on his bed again and smiled brightly.

Cameron focused back on Joe.

House was not worth it. She was over him, and all she needed was to move on with her life.

Find someone else.

Joe.


	5. Chapter 5

The next day went by without any irregularities. Cameron tried to avoid House as much as possible, which was quite easy since he was doing clinic hours.

It was almost 5 o'clock when she finally got out of the conference room, to pick up Joe to get him home. Cameron had switched her shift with Chase two days before so she would have all evening with Joe. Another on the plus side was that she would not be here when House would get back in an hour.

She was able to quickly grabbed her stuff for the weekend and hurried to the elevator. When she walked around the corner, she saw Chase coming in from the stairs. His face made her stop in the middle of her steps.

"I am so sorry, Cameron. Thomson just called; I need to cover the pit. There was a major car crash at the interstate. I was just on my way to tell you," he gave her a friendly, but sorry smile.

Cameron sighed, and then looked back to the office,

"Is Foreman still around?"

"Uh, no. I think he left early today, he said something about a family emergency. Sorry; Cameron," he looked at her, uneasy.

But Cameron waved it away,

"Nah, that is not your fault. I'll figure something out."

"Well, this might be insane, but since House is still down in the clinic for another hour …,"he trailed off, smiled at her and then went back to the emergency room.

Cameron sighed out loud. It was insane to ask House to take over for her, even if it just would be for two or three hours. But what other choice did she have?

She found House standing at the nurse station, a lollipop in his mouth, preoccupied with a folder.

"Dr.House?"

"Dr. Cameron?" he teased, not looking up from his folder, which she now saw was actually a magazine on top of it.

She looked at him, hesitating.

"Are you just going to stand there and watch me read a magazine?" now he glanced at her from the corner of his eye, grinning slightly.

"I wanted to ask you for a favour," she suddenly burst out before she could even think about it.

"Oh, yes please." now he looked up and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Could you take over the on-call duty for me? It would only be for 2 or 3 hours," she looked at him with a mixture of anxiety, confusion and expectation.

"Uh, no. Sorry, got a hot date tonight," with that he closed the folder, threw his magazine into the trash can next to him and then vanished into exam room one with the folder.

Cameron watched him leave.

Why did she even bother in the first place?

She bent over the counter and picked up the phone. It rang two times before he picked up.

"Joe's residence."

"Hey Joe, it's me," she smiled slightly even though he probably would not notice.

"Oh, hey. I've got a question: Do you think I can nick some towels without Nurse Brenda noticing?"

Cameron could hear him chuckle loudly, when Cameron did not answer he continued,

"Let me guess, you'll have to stay at work?"

"I am sorry."

"I could wait in your office?" he offered, his voice soft.

"No, I am on call; I will have to stay here all night."

"Oh, okay."

She could hear him smile over the phone and it made her even sadder.

"I am so sorry, Joe."

"Ally, it is okay. It is not your fault. And even though I would prefer being driven home by a

gorgeous doctor, I think a cab'll do it."

Now she had to laugh.

"I could grab some coffee when I am done, and instead of a dinner we could have breakfast," she offered.

"Sounds great, Ally."

She caught herself smiling again, like so many times in the last couple of days. She had missed this feeling.

"You're going to call me when you are home, okay?"

Joe chuckled again at the other end of the line and then she hung up.

------

She had decided to do some paperwork until she was needed, so she sat down behind the table with a mug of hot coffee and put the two beepers right next to the stack of folders.

It wasn't exactly in her description of job to do her boss' work but she did not mind doing it, especially when she could kill some time with it.

It was about an hour later when her stomach started to rumble, and since she hadn't eaten in a while and had still some ahead of her she decided to get something before the cafeteria closed.

Quickly grabbing some money and the beepers she headed downstairs.

At the cafeteria she got the last salad, also two apples and a coffee. She paid, put everything in a paper bag and was about to go back when she spotted the head of Oncology on a table in the far end corner, surrounded by a rather large pile of blue administration folders.

She took her food and went over.

"Wilson, hey."

"Oh, Dr Cameron. Still here?" he had looked up at her with his dark-brown eyes.

"I am on call," she said and as if on command one of her beepers started to vibrate.

'I am home. Can not wait for breakfast. Joe.' It read.

She did not notice that she was smiling until she saw Wilson curiously looking at her.

While she quickly put it away her glance felt on the backpack on the chair across from Wilson.

"Is that House's?" she slowly asked.

"Yeah. Uhm, do you …"

"I am gone for two minutes and here you are, flirting with …"

Cameron turned around and saw House limping over to them, and when he saw who was in front of him, his mouth turned into a slight smirk.

Cameron just stared at him.

"Dr Cameron, are you joining us for dinner?" House said his face sporting a smug grin, sitting down on the chair in front of her forcing her to step back.

"That is your hot date?" she started, still looking at him.

"First of all, 'it' is a 'he' and then … you have no idea how hot it can be to be with Wilson," he said winking at his friend. Wilson just responded with a disgusted look.

Cameron inhaled slow and deep, trying to not let her anger take over. It was futile, she realized when she looked back at him.

When House looked back from Wilson to Cameron, he saw her eyes piercing him. They were sparkling with anger.

"I can't believe you."

House sighed exasperated, but not letting go of her eyes, "Oh, here we go," he mumbled.

"You are unbelievable. All I was asking for were two or three hours. And …" she trailed off, looking at him.

At this moment, he could see her surrender. The anger in her eyes was replaced by a blank expression he could not read.

They looked at each other for a few more moments, and then she turned on her heels and walked out.

"What was that all about?" Wilson ripped him out of his thoughts.

"Nothing," House mumbled and started to fiddle with his cane.

"Didn't look like nothing."

When House did not respond Wilson added, "Whatever you did … "

"What makes you think I did something?"

"Whatever you did to her, and I am sure it has something to do with her friend, you should bring her the food she left, because of you."

House followed Wilson's finger which was pointing to the bag behind him.

House stared at the brown paper bag for a moment, as if it would be some kind of strange alien then looked at Wilson,

"You are annoying. Do it yourself. I got to go."

With that he got up, took his backpack and limbed out of the cafeteria towards the elevators.

Ten minutes later Wilson found himself entering the Diagnostics conference room, carrying a bunch of folders in his one hand and the food bag in the other one. The table was stuffed with manila folders, patient charts, and Cameron was sitting at the other end. She had propped up her feet on the table listening to music on her iPod.

Wilson put down his folders it was only then she noticed that someone else was in the room, it almost made her jump up on her feet.

When she pulled out her earphones, he could hear she was listening to heavy metal. The music for angry people. The music for people who had to deal with House on a daily basis.

"Sorry. Uh, you forgot this when you … "

"Oh, thank you" She said taking the bag from him.

When she stood in front of him he noticed how small she was without her high heels. But looking her into the eyes he knew she was anything but petite and defenceless. She was nothing like she had been when she came to PPTH.

"So, what did he do this time?" he carefully started.

She took a deep breath and smiled softly, "Just House … being House."

When Wilson gave her a questioning look she quickly added, "I don't want to talk about it."

"Wow. It must have been something really bastard-like."

She turned back to him, frowning.

Wilson gave her a friendly smile, "Well, usually you are the one to keep up with him. You contradict House whenever you think he does something wrong or pisses you off …" he stepped neared, "… and ten minutes ago, you just gave up."

"Can you blame me?" her voice sounding sad and exhausted.

"No. Not at all," he laughed humourlessly.

"May I ask why now?"

"I don't know. Maybe I am just tired of this. Of him," she shrugged.

Wilson watched her for a moment, she did look tired. Not physically, but emotionally tired and he was sure it wasn't just because she was a doctor. He picked up his folders and turned to leave the room.

"Dr Wilson?"

He turned around before he stepped out of the room.

"Thanks."

Cameron smiled at him, not sure though if she thanked him for the food or for the talk.

She watched him leaving, there was something about him. She did not know what it was, but there was a strong connection to him, she had felt it every time she had talked to him about personal things.

When Wilson entered his office, he sighed, slumping down in his chair.

It did not take a shrink to figure out what was going on here. If House would not stop acting like this, he surely would loose his female fellow in a not so distant future. She hadn't given up completely yet, but Wilson was sure it would not take much for her anymore.

Cameron sat on Joe's couch, her knees pulled up under herself while he was taking care of the dishes. His apartment was small, but with the view over the river from the living room it was also really comfortable. It had been a wonderful morning, after she had left the hospital. She had gotten them breakfast and they had spent the whole last hour just laughing and talking.

Now a wave of sleep washed through her body and she yawned loudly.

Last night had been a calm night, fortunately. And though when she leaned back and closed her eyes, it was all it took to fall asleep.

A loud ring pulled her out of sleep, to what seemed just a few seconds later. Though the clock on the wall told her that it had been two hours; she looked around but she was alone in the living room, the only sound coming from her cell phone.

She fiddled it out of the bag, the caller ID showing her that it was the hospital.

"Yeah," she answered her voice gruff and sleepy.

"It's Chase. I know you were on call last night, but we got a case and Cuddy wants you in."

Cameron sighed, closed her eyes.

"Give me half an hour," she said. After she hung up she noticed Joe standing next to her,

"Going back to the hospital?"

"Yeah," she slowly pulled some strands of hair out of her face.

He came nearer while she put her phone back into her bag.

"I should go and get changed," She said while grabbing her stuff

"Yeah, sure."

She felt Joe putting his hand on her arm, "Ally, wait," he said soft and almost inaudible.

When she looked up at him, she felt Joe's hand moving down her arm. He closed the gap between them and then his lips touched hers for the briefest moment.

But before she could even react he stepped back and smiled at her.

At this moment she realized that Joe had pulled something out of her, she'd thought was long gone.

The feeling of happiness.

That was when she started to smile, too.

* * *

_So, what do you think?  
Oh, and I got a small problem which I did not even know I had before I watched __Spin again.  
That guy had the same disease I wanted to include in my next chapter, but I totally forgot about that when I wrote it. I had it all worked out and now I need to start all over again. sighs  
Well, not your problem, right ;) Unfortunately I have an exam coming up on thursday so I won't be able to finish the next one until the weekend._


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry for the delay of this chapter, and that it is kind of short. I promise the next chapter will be longer and I will have it up this week :)**

**Enjoy! And please comment, cause that is what keeps me going.**

* * *

House had just entered the elevator when he noticed Cameron standing in the back, leaning against the wall, her eyes closed.

She was wearing dark blue jeans and a plain red pullover, half covered by an unbuttoned coat,

Her hair was held back in a ponytail; loose strands had escaped and were hanging down her face, framing her features.

"Good morning, Dr.Cameron," he said smirking.

On that she opened her eyes and looked at him. For a brief instance he thought he saw something like anger across her face, but it was immediately replaced by another of a blank expression; one he could not read.

Damn, she was getting good at this.

"Didn't know it was casual Saturday, today," he tried to tease her, but then the door opened she quickly stepped out, not giving him any look or response.

When House entered the conference room just a minute after Cameron, he saw that the reason why Cuddy had called him in on a Saturday morning wasn't just another regular case.

Besides his ducklings, were there also, including Cuddy herself, Wilson and Dr. Andrews, the head of the Immunology Department.

"Oh great, a party. And here I thought you would forget about our 3 and a half months anniversary, darling," he said making a face towards Cuddy.

But the hospital administrator just ignored the comment and turned to Andrews,

"George?"

The doctor, who was in his late Fifties nodded shortly and then turned to House, who was leaning against the wall that separated the conference room from his office.

"Maggie Patterson, 27 year old female, was admitted last night after she had trouble breathing. We gave her oxygen and she is stable now," Andrews stated handing House the chart.

But House did not even look at it, instead threw it back on the table.

"That is a though one. I think last year there was a case of this really uncommon disease. I think it starts with an 'F' and ends with 'lu'," he grimaced turning towards his office.

"She was tested negative on any viral or bacterial infection. No elevated SED rate," Andrews said louder.

House stopped, then turned around and sighed,

"White count?"

"Normal."

"Let me guess: Important donor is involved here?" he turned to Cuddy while he grabbed the file from the table.

Cuddy just gave him a look.

"Okay, people. Shoot," he said taking his marker in hand.

"She is suffering from fatigue for the last 6 months and nausea for a couple of weeks now," Foreman responded.

House wrote the two symptoms down.

"That is all?" he asked teasingly and turned to Cuddy, who gave him a humourlessly smile.

"Ok then. Foreman, go take a detailed history. Get every information that could be helpful. Cameron and Chase, you guys go and do some blood tests. Start with the basics."

---

About three hours later everyone was gathered in the conference room again.

"Okay, Foreman? Anything?" Cuddy was facing Foreman across the table.

"She said, she started having this fatigue about 6 months ago. It got really bad so she started to take antidepressants."

"Anything else?" House followed up.

"The nausea started about two months ago, but is under control. Last night she was coming back from a trip to San Diego when suddenly her breathing started to get heavy."

"Okay, what about the test results?" House turned back to the whiteboard.

"Her blood work looks normal. White count is still normal," Chase replied.

"Okay, we hardly got anything," House sighed exhausted, put the marker down and turned around, "Do a full-body scan. I guess we will just have to wait."

With that he turned and went into his office.

After spending the whole day and night completing test after test, CT's, MRI's and blood cultures, they were still no wiser since she was admitted, but at least the patient was stable for now.

Cameron had gotten some sleep in the doctor lounge the night before, but was hardly what someone would call, rested.

Now she was on her way back to the conference room, Foreman had paged letting her know the latest test results were back.

"… because we are about 98 sure it is not cancer," Wilson was saying, when she entered the room

"98? Wow, that sounds like an awful lot," House mocked him.

"Well, we practically scanned her whole body and this is the closest we can get," Wilson sounded almost as if he was apologizing.

After Cameron had sat down every pager in the room started to beep frequently.

The steady sound echoing through the hall.

Half an hour later they were back in the conference room. The patient had started to cough blood after she had been ex-tubated a couple of hours ago. She had lost enough blood to warrant a transfusion.

"Okay, now we got a new symptom," House said and wrote down 'Hemoptysis**'. **

"Could be Aspergilloma," Chase said.

"No, there was nothing on the x-ray. What about a Coccidioidomycosis? She just came back from California," Cameron suggested, looking from Chase to House.

"Unlikely, she did not present with rash, fever or muscle pain. But then again … do a PCR test. What else?"

They threw in some more theories, some very unlikely but it was the best they had.

House was sitting in his office, playing with his giant tennis ball when his door flew open a couple of hours later.

"We got a new symptom, her kidneys are starting to shut down," Andrews informed him, then waited for House to get up to follow him into the conference room.

"What about Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria?" Chase threw right in.

"I take it she was tested negative on Valley Fever and all the other stuff?" House asked while limping over to the whiteboard.

"Yes, she did. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with her," Andrews said, more to himself rather than the group of doctors in the room with him.

"Well, except for the fact that she is anemic and that her kidneys decided to quit, which basically means, that she is _dying_," House mocked and gave him a mischievous grin, "Okay. We got lung problems and the kidneys are affected. What would …"

"Hang on," Cameron suddenly burst out.

Everyone turned around to her, she was smiling. She knew it. He could see that she did. Because usually it was him who had this slight smile all over his face.

When she turned to look at him he stared into her eyes.

"Her first symptom was the fatigue, right? Then the lungs and now the kidneys," her smile grew even wider. But everyone else just stared at her, like she was speaking another language.

"Anti-glomerular basement membrane disease ... Goodpasture's Syndrome," she finally revealed.

And the wall was down. Why didn't he think of that? It had been right in front of him all the time.

But strangely, he did not feel any disappointment at all. Instead he felt proud, that one of his fellows had solved the puzzle. Cameron had solved it.

"I think we should do a kidney biopsy and then start treating her with immunosuppressants," she added, now talking to Dr. Andrews.

It was two hours later, House was about to leave, when Andrews knocked on his office door.

"Dr. House? Do you got a minute?"

When House did not respond he entered anyway,

"I just got the results. It is indeed Goodpasture's syndrome."

House looked up, nodded shortly and grabbed his backpack.

"Listen, uhm. I wanted to talk to you about Dr. Cameron," Andrews said before House could leave.

Now he got House's attention.

"I have this job offer on my desk. From the immunology department at Yale. I would like to propose Dr. Cameron for the job."

House looked at him for a second,

"So? Do you need my consent? Or approval?"

"No, I actually just wanted to give you a heads-up. I already talked to Cuddy, too."

"Well, thanks a lot," House mocked then headed out, pushing past the man.

'Great' he thought, his headache was coming back.

It was late afternoon when Cameron finally left the hospital. She would have to go back to work in about 15 hours and all she wanted to do was take a bath and go to bed.

When she arrived at her car and she fiddled out the keys her cell started to ring.

"Hello?" she answered, unlocking the car doors.

"Take a look to your left" a male voice said.

She let go of the keys and slowly turned around.

Joe was leaning against his own car, grinning. She hung up, walked over to him and smiled.

"What are you doing here, Joe?" she asked.

"Nice to see you, too," he laughed and gave her a hearty hug.

When they separated she stepped back a bit and smiled at him, Joe turned around and now she noticed the huge coffee he handed her now.

"You know you are a hero, right?" she asked, her eyes glowing she took a sip and closed her eyes, letting the brown fluid warm her from inside.

"Of course I know that," he joked, "So, I was thinking we could grab something to eat and watch 'Some like it hot.'"

On that Cameron looked up at him, surprised.

"Don't tell me you rent it."

"I didn't." on that he turned around again and this time he had a dvd in his hands,"I bought it."

"You are unbelievable. Oh my god, I haven't watched it since …" she trailed off.

It was the movie she, Joe and Matthew used to watch all the time. It was their movie.

"I … I am sorry …I wasn't thinking," Joe started to stutter.

"No. No … It is just … wow, I would really love to watch it again," she looked back at him, now smiling all over her face.

"With you," she added softly.

Just half an hour later she was sitting on Joe's couch again, a steaming hot chocolate in her hands, a blanket wrapped around her feet and her head leaning against Joe's shoulder.

And ten minutes into the movie she was asleep.

---

She felt a movement around herself. At a far distance.

When she opened her eyes, it was dark. She felt like having solid ground under her again, she propped up on her elbows and looked around.

"Joe?"

"Yeah?"

She saw a shadow at the door, it turned around and came back.

"What time is it?" she rubbed her eyes with her left hand after Joe had switched on the nightstand light.

"It's past 9. Go back to sleep."

"I am sorry," she suddenly said, the tears forming in her eyes.

"About what?" Joe frowned and sat down next to her.

"That I … pushed you away after … after Matthew died. That I wanted you to leave. That I could not see you without thinking of him. That I blamed you for what I felt."

The tears were rolling down her cheeks and she had no power to hold them back. Joe bent his head slightly, the corner of his mouth lifting a tiny bit. He took her cheek into his hand.

"You have absolutely nothing to be sorry for, Ally," he whispered.

Cameron now slowly closed her eyes taking a deep breath. When she opened her eyes and saw him looking at her she realized something. Without thinking about it, she leant forward kissing him.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

When Cameron woke up the sun just had started to rise. The birds were singing already and the soft rays of light were flooding through the whole room, covering every shape into a mix of light and shadows.

She stretched and closed her eyes for a few more seconds until she turned around, finding Joe next to her, asleep.

After she had started to kiss him last night, they had laid down across each other. Nothing had happened. She wasn't sure if it was because he still had to take it easy because of his wound or if she wasn't ready for this yet.

So instead they just looked at each other in silence, hands intertwined with their slow steady breathing being all you could hear.

Lying on her back she gazed at the shadows dancing on the walls; she realized she felt good.

Like all those previous dramas in her life hadn't just happened at all. It was like the last night had done something.

"You awake?" she heard Joe whisper.

The corners of her mouth lifted and she smiled, twisting her head to the side looking at him in the dim light.

"Morning," she grinned.

"Hey. Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, very good indeed," she sighed loudly, but then her face got serious,

"Is your chest okay? Any pain?"

"No, Dr. Cameron. I am fine, please stop worrying," he teased.

"It is just …" but when Cameron saw Joe's face she gave up immediately, and laughed, "Sorry."

He cupped her face with his right hand slightly stroked over her cheek with his thumb, drawing tiny circles on her skin.

"I really missed you, Joe," she whispered as a small tear rolled down her cheek.

Joe slowly leaned over and kissed it away.

Cameron shuffled over and he wrapped his arms around her slight frame, her head resting against his chest. His heart beat was strong and steady; she could get used to this.

Just like she easily had gotten used to it during the time, Matthew was in the hospital.

Joe had held her like this every night, until she had fallen asleep, after hours and hours of crying.

It seemed like an eternity had passed; like a lifetime had already been lived.

It felt right. To be here with Joe now, to let him hold her like he used to.

This was just what she needed … after …

'No' she told herself 'do not even think about letting him inside your head again'

She was over Gregory House. It had taken her long enough and no one, especially not House himself, should be able to put her in that kind of state again. It had been too easy for him to break her; she was not letting him do this ever again.

She would not break. She couldn't.

Screw House.

Cameron closed her eyes and tried to shake off the thoughts. When she opened her eyes again, she was still lying in Joe's arms. The sun was higher.

"Damn it, what time is it?" she quickly sat up, waking Joe.

"Uhm, it is 9.35," he answered sleepy.

"Ah, I need to get home and change," she quickly got out of bed.

"Let me give you a ride, I need to get a check up anyway."

It was 10.14 when they finally arrived on the PPTH parking lot.

They had no cases.

This was why House had spent the last two hours in Wilson's office and why he was now rummaging through the books in the conference room. The reason? To find out whether he would win his bet with Wilson about a case back in the 1930's.

When the door flew open behind him, he did not turn around. Cuddy was late; usually she would have found him half an hour ago, demanding that he would do his hours in hell.

"Oh my, I already thought …" he stopped when he saw it was actually Cameron who was rushing over to her desk.

He was surprised, even mildly shocked that she was obviously late. She never was late.

"Well, good morning Dr. Cameron," he said in a cheery voice, putting back the book he had just pulled out.

She threw him a disgusted look and sat down behind her desk, switching on the computer screen.

House watched her for a minute, wondering why she had been late, but eventually decided to leave her alone for the time being. It would be much more fun to mock her about it, when his other two minions were around.

He unhooked the cane from the shelf and limbed back to his office. House had already drawn all the blinds in case Cuddy came looking so he slumped into his chair and decided to play some PSP.

Just five minutes later the door opened again. But House knew it wasn't Cuddy, because his neck hair did not stand on end. So he tried to concentrate back on his game when he heard someone had entered the conference room.

"Hey, what are you doing here already?" he heard Cameron say, her voice being soft and so un-like everything he had ever heard from her.

"My appointment got cancelled, some emergency came in," the male voice belonging to Joe Martin, answered.

House slowly got up from his chair and moved to the wall, peaking through the blinds he only saw Cameron; she was smiling.

He had to admit, this was a smile he hadn't seen on her more than maybe twice. But definitely not in the last 6 months.

"So, this is where you work?" Joe asked.

"Well, yeah. Pretty much. Hey, how about a coffee, down at the cafeteria?"

House could hear her tone becoming slightly nervous and stepped back from the glass wall, because she probably was looking over to his office, checking if he had noticed them.

This could get interesting; House thought and then opened the joining door.

"Dr. Cameron, are you leaving again? You just came here," House said his voice exaggeratingly cheery and loud. He walked over to the coffee maker and did not even look at Joe when he walked pass him.

"We just wanted to grab a coffee," Cameron said, a bit irritated and was already on her way to shove Joe out of the room, when House turned around.

"Well," he trailed off, waiting for Cameron to turn around, he pointed to the coffee maker in front of him, Cameron just sighed exhaustedly.

"No big deal, I can go alone if you got work to do," Joe said smiling at her.

It was one of those smiles that can make you sick to your stomach. And it did.

"Yeah, work. Isn't that something you have to do at … uhm … work?" House said mocking, looking back to Cameron.

"Huh, weird, and I always thought it involved playing game boy all day long, and trying to avoid your boss in order to get away from work," Cameron shot back, staring at him.

"I know that it doesn't involve escorting former boyfriends of yours to the cafeteria," House said wanting to go back to his office when Cameron moved his way, her eyes glowing in anger.

"It is not my job to do your work, either," she counted.

With this she pointed on her desk where a rather big pile of letters was just waiting to be opened. Both were staring at each other, completely oblivious of Joe and everything around them.

"Then why do you still bother? You are the one who annoys me and everyone else with stupid cases from those letters," he said.

"Maybe I should just quit then. Make it easier for everyone," she said her voice dripping with venom.

"Like that worked out last time," he burst out before he could even think about it.

And then something changed in her eyes. All the anger just vanished. It was gone in a second. Instead he saw something else and even if it was just for the tiniest of seconds, he could clearly see that she was hurt. He had done that.

But a second later, he wasn't even sure if he had seen that or if it had been just an illusion.

Now all he could see was blankness.

Nothingness replaced her emotions. She was getting too good at shutting her feelings out. Something she had learned from him. Something he had always wanted her to learn.

But then, why was it bothering him now?

He should have been proud, but all he felt was disappointment.

House saw her opening his mouth when the door opened again. Only then the both of them realized they weren't alone anymore, that they hadn't been alone in the first place Joe was literally staring at them.

Then he realized that Dr. Andrews had just entered the room, and was looking at Joe, then at them and then back at Joe like he was trying to find out what was going on.

"Uhm, Dr. Cameron? I was just wondering if you got a minute to talk. In my office?" he finally said addressing Cameron.

"Yeah, of course. I'll be with you in a minute," Cameron said turning around, now slowly nodding.

Then she turned back to him, her look obviously said that this wasn't over, then walked over to Joe. She had lowered her voice, so House did not hear what she told him, but Joe just nodded smiling giving her a quick kiss on her left cheek and left.

Just a second later, Cameron had left, leaving House standing alone in the conference room.

Cameron was sitting across from Dr. Andrews in his office. After she had told Joe that she would come to see him later she had went here immediately.

Five minutes had passed since and she was still angry. House had gotten to her, again. But right now she tried to not think about him, this was about her.

Andrews just had told her about the job offer, at first she had thought she had misunderstood him, but he obviously was offering her a job with the best Immunology Department in the country.

"I know this comes probably unexpected to you. You are not getting such an offer every day," Andrews joked.

"Yeah, you could say that," she smiled slightly.

"It would be a major career jump and working under Ira Mellman would definitely improve your skills."

"I know. Wow, are you sure about this? I mean, I haven't even finished my second fellowship yet."

"Well, I talked to Cuddy. She said she would agree to let you out of your contract in two months, if they find someone to replace you."

This threw her off. Andrews started to laugh at her facia expression.

"I know, this probably sounds like a joke to you. But it is not. You are an exceptional doctor, Allison. Not just with the Goodpastures-syndrome case **you** solved. And I wouldn't have proposed you for the job if I wouldn't be absolutely sure you are the best."

"I really do not know what to say," she said honestly, trying to get some order into her thoughts.

"You do not need to decide right away. Dr. Mellman, Dr. Cuddy and I agreed that we can give you until the end of the week."

"Okay, thank you," was all Cameron could say. Shaking Dr Andrew's hand she got up and slowly left the office.

On her way back to the conference room, she had to tell herself multiple times that this was happening. This was real. This job offer was probably the best thing that could have happened.

Of course that would mean she would have to end her fellowship under Gregory House. This was probably the most important time of her whole medical career.

Lately it hadn't been exactly the job environment she'd like to have, with this whole Tritter thing going on and House getting even harder to cope with every day.

Maybe it was time to move on.

Situations like the one earlier showed her that nothing good would come out of this anymore.

She had learned a lot under Greg House, maybe too much.

It was just after noon and Cameron was still sitting at her desk, the mail all sorted and all necessary responses answered. Her mind was still all about the job offer at Yale.

How much she wished she could go home to Joe and tell him about the news.

Moving. The word suddenly appeared in her mind. She would have to move. Would Joe even consider coming along? And did she want him to come in the first place?

Cameron could not even define their relationship if someone were to ask her. How could she then already think about moving with him?

"You should eat the green stuff instead of staring at it," a gruff voice pulled her back to reality.

House was standing across her desk, pointing down on the salad. He himself had a lollipop in his mouth. She looked at him, for a second she wasn't sure what he was talking about, but when she did she lowered her face and took the fork into her right hand.

Silence.

House had gone over to the conference table, a gossip magazine open in front of him.

Another two minutes later,

"I think you should take it," his voice casual, almost friendly.

"What do you …?"

"The job at Yale. Ira Mellman. He is a great doctor; it would be a great opportunity," he was still not looking up.

Cameron was staring at him, unable to respond to his words. This whole situation seemed so surreal after what happened this morning. He was actually sounding like a friend giving her advice.

"Andrews said you could start in two months?" now he looked up at her. When she realized he was looking at her, questioning she quickly looked down to her salad and nodded shortly.

"Take the job," House said after another minute of silence, then took his magazine and shuffled back to his office.

When she looked up at him getting up, she thought that the wall around him had shut down, though it was just for the briefest moment, she was sure it had been real.

Where did that sudden change come from?

"So what did you tell her?"

House was standing in the dark kitchen, when he realized it had been a mistake to tell Wilson about the job offer for Cameron. Because the oncologist immediately had drawn his own conclusions and had invited himself over for a beer and was now sitting on House's couch, watching an old movie.

And of course, Wilson wanted to talk about it.

"I told her to take the job," House replied his eyes focused on some crumbs in his sink. They were almost hypnotizing.

"Why?" He heard Wilson opening another beer.

"She will earn twice as much and will have to work twice as less … she will have time to golf and actually be a real doctor," House mocked, still staring down his sink. He had stemmed his arms on the edges, his cane hooked right next to him.

"Seriously?" now Wilson stood behind him, leaning against the door frame, looking at him, he was pathetic.

"No, I am just afraid of my feelings," House joked, though he wasn't sure if he wanted to admit that it wasn't just the sarcasm speaking. Maybe that was why he hadn't acted like himself and had told her to take the job.

He grabbed what he came in here for, a bottle of beer, and went back to the living room trying to shut out his current thoughts.

Wilson followed immediately. Obviously not willing to let go of the topic so easily.

"So, you are just letting her go like this?"

"Guess so," House responded slumping down on the other end of the couch, his gaze focused on the TV screen.

Before Wilson could add something, he quickly grabbed the remote and turned up the volume, hoping that would tip him off to leave the topic.

And it did.

* * *

I made a banner for this story but since I am such a loser when it comes to computer stuff, I just give you the link here:

http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/8783/collidedoneoa2.png


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The week passed, and on Wednesday evening she was laying flat on her stomach, staring at the TV in front of her.

Cameron did not even know what movie she was watching. She had turned it on almost two hours ago but just couldn't focus on the movie. All she could do was think about the job offer.

Tonight she was alone. She had told Joe she needed to think about some things.

Joe had completely understood telling her whatever she decided he would be there backing her all the way. If she decided to take the job he would move with her to Yale. If not he would be fine with that too.

But when she thought about it she wasn't even sure what made her hesitate in the first place. This was a major opportunity and she shouldn't hesitate at all.

But why was she anyway?

Cameron had wanted to move a long, long time ago already. Once she'd almost done it, because of House. But he had been the one who had brought her back. This time was different.

He wanted her to go.

Gosh, was this frustrating. She knew she still had feelings for House; she tried to even convince herself that this wasn't the case. It was.

But she also knew there was not a slight chance that he would ever stop being so stubborn about it. They were doomed from the beginning on, so why even bother?

And now there was Joe. He was supportive and he was literally everything a girl could dream of. He was being a gentleman when you needed it, he was honest and caring.

Why couldn't she just fall for him like she did for House?

Of course she loved Joe, she always had and always would; she even could imagine getting old with him. But was this really what she wanted?

On the other hand, was trying to convince your boss that he has feelings for you too what she wanted? Definitely not.

She wanted to be happy and with Joe, she could be happy, she knew she would be.

Wasn't that what everyone counted on after all? 

Cameron sat up, took a deep breath and sighed loudly.

This wasn't anything like this should supposed to be. But she wasn't this naïve kid anymore; she wouldn't let anyone ruin her life. She had to do something.

On that she got up, took her keys, a jacket and her cell and left her apartment.

She would get rid of "her" problem either way. She just had to.

Twenty minutes later she had parked her car on the street in front of the building he was living in. She stayed in the car for another five minutes; then finally after finding the braveness within to walk to the door.

House had seen her from the window when she had arrived. And finally after ten minutes she knocked in his door. It was a steady, determined knock.

"I already thought you wanted to stalk me from your car," he said when he opened the door.

She blushed immediately and when he had fully scanned her body he started to grin widely.

Blue striped pj pants and a white camisole under a wool jacket. When she noticed that he was checking her out she quickly zipped her jacket and cleared her throat.

"Could I talk to you? Inside?" she looked back at him, a pleading look on her face.

House frowned for a second then nodded shortly, stepping aside to let her in.

She entered his condo; suddenly it was like that evening two years ago was happening again. He waited behind her for a moment, waiting for her to say something.

"So, are you just going to stand here? I mean not that I would complain, you would make a good statue like this," he teased and then limped passed her to the kitchen.

"Why do you want me to go?" she suddenly burst out before he had a chance to enter the kitchen fully. He stopped mid-step, but did not turn around.

"House?" she followed up after several seconds had passed.

"God you're annoying. I was thinking of offering you a beer but maybe I should just throw you out," he said hurriedly vanishing into the kitchen before her eyes.

But Cameron would not let this go so easily. So she followed him.

"Do **you **want me to go?" she almost whispered.

"For god's sake. Why do you always have to make it so personal? I thought it would be a great opportunity for you. For any one to take; a chance you should not pass," he said, then took a big sip of his beer.

"That is all?" she almost sounded disappointed.

"No," he made a grimace, "I am also incredibly afraid of my feelings for you and I want you to leave before I can fall for you."

"Don't do that," she lowered her face, staring at her sneakers.

"Do what? Wasn't that what you wanted to hear? Why you came here? So I would admit I have feelings for you?" he stepped nearer, so they were only an arm length apart.

"Right, I forgot that Gregory House does not have any feelings," she laughed humourlessly.

"Well, thank god you have more than enough for half of humanity then," he joked, with that comment was when her facial impression changed again. She was not hurt by his line, she was actually getting angry.

'Good,' he thought.

They stared at each other for a while but nothing. Maybe he had seen anger where no anger was.

"You know what? Sorry, I wasted your time, just forget it," she finally cut through the silence braking the eye contact.

She turned around to leave. House suddenly leaned forward and grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her slightly backwards.

Cameron looked down on his long fingers which were encircling her wrist and after a long moment finally looked up at him.

The hand was gone the next.

"You better leave," he grumbled, looking down, then turned around and went into his bedroom, closing the door behind himself.

When Cameron entered her apartment a short time later, she inhaled deeply forcing herself to not laugh out loud at the comical side of the evening.

House was acting like he didn't even know what he wanted. One time he would be pushing her away, the next time he was pulling her back. Push and Pull, which was everything their relationship, if you could call it that, was about.

It was just so damn frustrating.

The following day passes with ease. But something had changed.

Cameron now knew what she was going to do with Yale. When she had left House's apartment she had thought it had been useless but actually last night had done its purpose.

She had called Joe immediately after she had arrived back home after her intermezzo with House. And of course, he was okay with her decision.

There was no pushing or pulling.

Now she was on her way back from Dr Andrew's office to Cuddy to inform her about her decision. She knew it would be hard, but it was the right decision.

Cameron knocked on her door and the Dean of Medicine waved her inside, indicating her to take seat while she finished a phone call.

"So, Dr. Cameron, I am taking it you are here because of the offer from Dr. Andrews?" Cuddy said after she had hung up, now focusing completely on House's only female employee.

"That is right," Cameron smiled slightly.

"And?"

Cameron took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

"I am going to take the job."

Cuddy looked up at her, surprised. She actually could not believe she was really doing this.

But there was actually no other option for her. Not like this.

"And you are absolutely sure?"

Cameron just nodded as a response feeling lighter. Like someone had lifted the heavy weight which had been there for the past three years off of her shoulders.

"Okay then. I'll prepare everything with our lawyer. You are aware that the condition under which I agreed to release you is to find a replacement?"

"Yes," Cameron sighed uncomfortable.

"Don't worry, if House starts to be a problem I am going to decide for him," Cuddy smiled sympathetically.

It was a shame she had never really gotten close to Cuddy, of course she was her boss's boss, but still she seemed like they had a lot in common.

"You want to grab a bite?" Wilson put his head through the drawn blinds into House's office.

House was sitting behind his desk, fumbling with something in his backpack as Wilson entered the room.

"What are you doing there?"

"Trying to detangle my earphones." He said lifting his iPod and the wires in question.

Wilson sat down across him, putting his bag down on his lap. He watched House for a few seconds.

"So, rumour has it Dr. Cameron agreed to take the job at Yale."

House hesitated a second, of course she would, that shouldn't have been a surprise to him, but nonetheless it was. He quickly covered his hesitance with looking up at Wilson,

"She made the right choice"

Now the oncologist raised his eyebrows,"She did?"

"Yeah, of course. Even I would've taken the job, but the dean there hasn't got such a nice cleavage," he made a face and grinned.

"Cameron is going to leave, House. You are aware of that, aren't you?"

"Oh, really? I thought she would just stay here and work via phone," House goofed, focusing back on his wires.

"You are going to let her go? Just like that?" Wilson asked suspicious.

On that House just shrugged with his shoulders. Of course he would never admit anything else.

"Are you sure you want this?"

"Are you sure you should be giving me advice concerning women?" House barked back, threw the earphones inside his backpack and got up.

Wilson followed him anyways, and when they had reached the parking lot he stopped while House put his keys into the ignition of his motorcycle.

"It's ironic, you know?" Wilson said.

"What is?" House said fitting his helmet and lifting his right leg over the machine.

"You call everyone a coward. But when it comes to your own feelings you are the biggest of them all. You really think she is going to stay, aren't you?"

House did not answer; instead he looked up at him, surprised.

"Well, let me tell you House, she isn't going to wait forever. No one is worth that, not even you," with that Wilson gave him a last sympathetic look and then went on to his own car, leaving a dazzled House in his wake.

"So you are really going to leave?"

Chase got up from his place behind her desk when she entered the conference room the next morning.

But Cameron just had to smile; the gossip talk at PPTH had obviously been faster than her.

"Who can blame her? I'm sure I'll be leaving as soon as I get the chance," Foreman said and pointed to House's office.

"Aw, I think you just broke my tiny, tiny heart," House entered the conference room and made a face, then quickly looked at Cameron but went straight to his office.

Of course he would never ever let loose a word about what happened two nights ago again. That was what he was best at, denial.

"When are you starting?" Chase sat down at the table, not caring about the open door of House's office.

"In about a month," Cameron said, while she put down her bag.

"Already? Can't wait to get out, huh?" Foreman grinned at her.

"Actually, it were supposed to be two, but Cuddy's lawyers worked it out with Dr. Mellman and it looks like I can start next month,"

"Well, well, well … good news," House came out of his office, throwing each of them a file,

"but as long as you are here, we got a case."

Cameron took the file but allowed herself to shortly glance at him. He really showed no reaction at all, nothing.

But why had he tried to hold her back two nights ago?

'Forget about this,' she told herself. She would be moving in a few weeks. And then she would start a new life without House. But with Joe.

A guy she had been in love with for over 15 years now, and who was actually making her happy.

And wasn't that what life was all about?


	9. Chapter 9

It was late Wednesday afternoon and Cameron was waiting at the reception for Dr. Anna Stevens, the new immunologist who would replace her in House's team.

They had just found her last week and after House would not agree to do any interviews himself, she had started to look out for a replacement herself. And last Friday they had interviewed Dr. Stevens, and from the first moment on, Cameron was sure that she would handle House easily.

"Dr. Cameron?" the blonde woman walked up to her from Cuddy's office where she'd just signed all necessary papers. She was wearing a pinstriped pants suit and was carrying a brown leather suitcase. Her long blonde hair was held together in a ponytail at the back of her head, and her brown eyes were surrounded by black eyeliner. She was in her early-thirties and this would be her third fellowship.

"Dr. Stevens, welcome at PPTH," she shook hands with the woman and smiled.

They had agreed to introduce her to the others and House today, and maybe get her used to the daily work around here, before Cameron would leave on Monday.

"So, you ready?" Cameron asked her.

"Let's face the devil," Anna nodded grinning and followed Cameron.

Cameron watched her from the corner of her eye; Anna was extremely beautiful, intelligent and had the right amount of humour to be able to handle House. Nevertheless she was a bit nervous because House was still acting like nothing would change, like she would not leave at all. But she was; she would have her last day on Monday in one week, then Joe would come pick her up and they would drive to Yale and get settled, and on Monday in two weeks she would sign her new contract.

"How complicated is he?"

Cameron turned around to Anna and frowned, not sure what she was talking about.

"Dr. House. I am not naive, he's a legend and all but I also heard that he can get quite complicated," she grinned.

"Well, you'll find that he is indeed one of the best doctors you can find," Cameron tried to avoid the real question to not scare her off so fast.

"Is that a 'yes, he is a jerk'?" Anna laughed when Cameron just gave her a look.

"That is what I thought," she added as the doors of the elevator slid open getting out while Cameron tried to hide a smile.

They entered the conference room, and found Chase sitting at the table trying to solve one of his crossword puzzles.

"Chase? This is Anna Stevens," Cameron introduced while Chase got up and offered his hand.

"You can call me Anna," she took the hand smiling.

"Anna, I am Robert Chase. Nice to meet you."

Cameron watched the two smiling at each other. Maybe this whole thing was good for more than one person after all.

"I'll be right back," she said going over to House's office walking straight inside.

She found House hanging over his computer, reading something Cameron could not identify.

"House?" she asked carefully.

"What?" he snapped back not looking up.

Cameron hesitated; he was in an even worse mood than usual today.

"Is this some kind of game where I am supposed to guess why you are in here?" he mumbled turning around to face her.

Cameron's frown turned into a slight smile, "We got a case."

Then she turned on her heels swaying her hips with a bit more purpose as she left.

House watched her leaving his office as fast as she'd appeared.

Something was weird about her today.

He sighed, finally getting up limping to the conference room, where he found Chase and a blonde woman talking.

"Where is the black one?" he said quite loudly so Chase and his girlfriend would notice him.

"Dr. House, nice of you to come out to say hello to your new employee Dr. Anna Stevens," he heard Cameron saying from his left leaning against the glass wall to his office.

The blonde woman walked towards them, offering him her hand, smiling friendly.

House immediately turned around; trying to get back into his office, but Cameron was in his way, blocking the escape route to his door.

She was grinning at him.

"Would you, please?" House raised his eyebrows expecting but Cameron did not move at all, instead she looked at him, her eyes showing her determination and the smug grin still on her face.

She knew him way too well.

So he stepped nearer, their bodies nearly touching, his face now only inches away from hers.

House stared down into her eyes for the longest moment before he started, "Get out of my way."

His voice was a low rustle, almost inaudible only loud enough so Cameron would be able to hear. But it didn't have the effect he planned; Cameron didn't waver, instead she stared back, her eyes showing a determination he hadn't seen in a while.

They stared at each other for some time until they were interrupted by a female voice,

"Dr. House?"

House slowly turned around seeing the woman standing in front of him, a huge smile all over her face, offering her hand again.

"It is a big honour to finally meet you."

House looked at her for a little bit longer, sighing he took her hand.

"Nice to meet you Dr. Stevens," he said with a friendly face, a bit exaggerated going unnoticed by Anna.

"Please call me Anna,"

"Right," he said his smile vanishing as he turned back to Cameron who was still standing guard in front of his door.

"Satisfied? Can I go now?"

Now a huge smile appeared on Cameron's face and she slowly stepped aside.

House slumped down in his chair, mumbling.

'What was that? How the hell did Cameron manage to become such a calculating woman? Did she take lessons at Cuddy?'

The thought of Anna replacing Cameron, he avoided.

Of course he knew Cameron would leave, she was too stubborn to not do it. But somehow he actually believed that if he would not accept it, she would stay.

Of course he knew that was stupid. Admitting it was the hard part for Gregory House.

Whether it was a good thing after all would probably depend on the point of view. But when Cameron entered Cuddy's office the next day at around noon, she was sure it wasn't a good thing. At that time she did not know that this was the day everything in her life started to turn upside down.

"House fired Dr. Stevens this morning," Cuddy started sighed exhausted.

"What happened?"

"That is what I want to know. Dr. Stevens came to me at nine this morning, telling me that she had been in the conference room when House came in and started yelling at her, then just said she was fired,"

"Did you talk to him yet?"

"I tried, he didn't even react when I threatened to up his clinic hours for the month. And then I thought Dr. Wilson could talk to him, but he won't be back until later today," Cuddy said her voice showing definite traces of exhaustion.

"Do you want me to talk to him?"

Cuddy nodded wearily but managed to smile at Cameron as she got up from the chair and left the office.

Cameron leaned against the back wall of the elevator sighing. Of course she should've expected something like this to happen. This was so House-like.

After their personal encounter yesterday she wasn't so sure what to expect.

Him staring at her like this had brought up feelings she had thought were long gone. No, she was over him, but the way he looked at her, the way he had challenged her to move out of his way … there was something about it.

House was working on some electronic device when she entered the room. He quickly put down his glasses and leaned back, trying to hide a slight smile dancing around the corners of his mouth.

"Why did you fire her?"

"She made crappy coffee," he grimaced looking at her.

"You're kidding?"

"Nope."

"House," Cameron's eyes were filled with sadness as she looked at him, disappointed.

"What? I'm okay with how things are right now," he said shrugging.

"She is a very good doctor," Cameron tried again, but House did not respond. Instead he looked at her curiously.

"I'll be gone by next Tuesday, House. And you've probably scared off the best applicant you could've gotten,"

"Don't care,"

Cameron looked at him silently, trying to figure out what he was thinking.

"Yeah, me neither. I tried to help you, which was obviously totally stupid of me, since I should've known you wouldn't care,"

"I didn't ask for help," he said slowly rising from his chair, walking around his desk stopping a few steps in front of her.

Cameron scoffed quietly, lowering her face to fiddle with her sleeve.

"Well, guess what: Sometimes people do something in order to help others, it is called 'being nice'. Oh wait, right, you've probably never heard of that before,"

"Oh, snap. That hurts," he grimaced again and wiped an imaginary tear away from his cheek.

"You know, just forget it. I'm tired of doing this all over again."

Cameron looked at him, her eyes full of sadness and resignation. She turned around to leave, once again she felt House fingers grabbing her arm, holding her back.

This time she didn't turn around, didn't look into his deep blue eyes, not giving him a reason to look at her in this degrading way.

She would just wait for him to let her go.

He didn't.

"Cameron," he whispered quietly.

She squeezed her eyes shut trying to force herself out of his grip, but she failed. She failed completely, because next thing she knew, she was looking into his eyes.

And what she saw made her gasp.

There was something inside his look, something she had rarely seen before.

For just an instant his eyes were telling her everything, everything she always wanted to know about him. Just the whole truth about Gregory House.

She wanted to say something but he pulled her nearer, their bodies once again only inches apart. They were so close she could feel his breath tickling her skin almost burning it.

About to open her mouth to ask him what he was doing she was stopped by his grip tightening. He wasn't hurting her but the tension in his grip was undeniable.

She almost forgot to breath.

Then he pressed his lips onto hers.


	10. Chapter 10

_Then he pressed his lips onto hers._

It took her only a split second to register what he was doing, before she started to kiss back.

At first it was a testing, exploring kiss but with every moment that passed it grew more and more fiercely.

As his hands moved from her cheeks to the small of her back, she wrapped hers around his neck, fingers grasping his hair, savouring every second.

It seemed like all the tension was being lifted from both their shoulders, as the kiss became more and more passionate. Both losing track of time, it wasn't until the phone rang did it bring them back to reality, breathing heavily when they parted.

Time stood still as they looked at each other, neither of them sure what the other was thinking. Cameron turned around and went to her desk to answer the phone, breaking the spell.

It was a nurse, telling her about a patient of hers she had treated two weeks ago in the clinic ago requesting her for a check-up. Cameron sighed, telling the nurse she would be down in ten minutes before hanging up. Slowly she calmed her breathing; in and out, in and out, leaning forward stemming her arms on the table before she went back to House's office.

She should have known he would be gone.

Two hours later she was in her car driving home. She had some trouble focusing on the street in front of her. Her knuckles were white because her fingers were wrapped around the steering wheel like her life would depend on it. And maybe it did.

This was not supposed to happen.

She had been over him; he never had been into her; so this never should have happened.

Truth was, she probably never was and he had probably always been.

Ten minutes and near miss crash later she entered her apartment. She didn't bother to taking off her pumps and her jacket; instead she slumped down on her couch, the only thing yet unpacked in the living room.

So there she was sitting, fully dressed, her purse clutched to her chest and staring at the naked wall in front of her where her TV used to be.

She did not know how long she had been sitting there when a knock pulled her out of her trance. Turning around she stared at the door like there was an alien waiting on the other side. Another knock. This time she recognized the distinctive sound of wood on wood.

Cameron slowly got up hesitantly, putting down her purse without breaking her look away from the door.

This was it. If she would let him in, something more than just kissing would happen.

It seemed like an eternity passed by until she had reached the door. She could hear the steady, nervous dull thump of his cane on the carpet as she leaned against the door, listening to it.

"Open the door."

She could hear his voice rustling quietly through the wood.

In retrospective she did not know what made her open the door in the first place, this time it didn't matter. It was like an invisible power was forcing her to.

Cameron stepped back and looked at House, standing in front of her, dripping wet from the thunderstorm which must have started after she had arrived back home. Or was it before? She couldn't remember.

House watched her with his eyes, glowing even bluer than usual. With a smooth move Cameron stepped aside letting him in.

A bright flash lit the room, the rain started to fall even heavier as she closed the door behind him.

In a flash as quick as the lightening she felt his arms turning her around, pushing her against the door. Once again his lips were on hers, his hips moulded against her, the rain creating a steady rhythm on her window. She could feel his hands opening the buttons of her jacket while he was kissing her neck.

A loud thunder made them stop, gasping for air, but House was still holding on to her jacket.

His look questioned her, asking if she really wanted this. Did she see worry?

Taking a deep breath Cameron knew every fibre of her whole being yelled at her to stop, she just couldn't stop what was about to happen any more than she could stop the world spinning. Instead she grabbed the hem of his shirt with one hand and ripped open his button down.

He threw the shirt down and turned back to Cameron's blouse, quickly opening every single button. She fiddled with his belt and opened it, then moved on to open the fly of his jeans, his arousal clearly noticeable now.

She looked up and started to kiss him fiercely again, her hands trying to pull his pants down.

"House," she whispered, her voice only a breath, almost inaudible, as she started to kiss his earlobe.

"I can leave," was his response, though he kept on undoing her bra.

Cameron scoffed, then closed her eyes as he cupped her breast,

"Bedroom," she whispered and slightly turned him around leading him.

House was grinning slightly, following her in his boxers and that was when she saw that he had dropped his cane when he had entered her apartment.

She turned around and pressed herself against him, supporting him while they walked over to the bed. Before they fell down she got out of her pants and got rid of his shirt as well.

As he entered her, the ear-shattering sound thunder growled through the room, deafening every single sound coming from them. It was like the forces of nature helped them to pretend this wasn't happening.

Cameron opened her left eye, staring into the bright sunlight that was flooding through the whole room.

The rain had stopped.

She was curled up on one side of the bed, the sheets pulled up under her chin, her face buried deep in the fluffy pillow. Closing her eyes once again she sighed, and got up, glancing at the clock. It was not even 7 yet, but she decided she would get up anyway.

The other side of the bed was empty

House had left 3 hours earlier, trying to keep as quiet as possible; it was useless since she had already been awake for twenty minutes already.

She knew it would end like this. It just had to.

Cameron took a long, hot shower and made some coffee. It was only 8.30, deciding she had time to go jogging.

Putting on her jogging clothes her cell phone started to ring.

Her first thought was that it would be House, that thought was quickly replaced by something else immediately. She had promised to call Joe last night.

"Hey Alli," she heard him saying cheery, people talking in the background.

"I am sorry I did not call, we had an emergency at the hospital," she lied.

"I figured," Cameron could hear him laughing slightly, "Listen, I talked to the landlord. He said we could use that little garden behind the building,"

"That's great"

"Yeah, right. So I thought I would come back on Monday around noon, I load everything on the truck and when you're done, we head down here,"

"Uh, yeah. Sure, sounds like a plan," Cameron said, trying to sound excited.

"Okay. I gotta go now, I am going to see you on Monday."

"Yeah."

"You okay, Alli?"

"Yeah, of course. I am sorry. I'm just a bit tired."

"Alright, take care. And I'll see you on Monday."

"See you then"

"I love you," Joe said.

"I know."

With that she quickly hung up and buried her face in her hands. What was going on with her? She had said this before, really easily, but now it just sounded wrong to tell him she loved him.

'After you just slept with your boss, for god's sake,' she reminded herself.

Shaking the thoughts away she put on her running shoes, grabbing her iPod and just started running.

House was sitting on his couch, watching TV, half listening to Wilson while was in the kitchen grabbing them a beer. It was late afternoon and as every week since Wilson was single again, they spend the night together.

So far, House hadn't said a word, being too deep in thoughts, not even being able to enjoy the monster truck rally in front of him.

Wilson slumped down next to him, handing him a bottle.

"Gravedigger's next?"

"Huh?" House glared at him, completely oblivious of the question.

Wilson looked at him,

"What's up?"

"I am thinking about on how I can kick you out of my apartment without getting up," House mumbled taking a sip of his beer.

"Cameron, huh?" Wilson guessed with a smug grin on his face.

House turned his face around and for a tiny second the shock of Wilson knowing what had happened was all over his face. House grimaced quickly to hide it but Wilson being his usual self immediately caught his expression,

"What happened?"

House didn't respond.

"Oh come on. Something happened, what was it?"

"Something will definitely happen if you don't shut up right now," he said with another pointed look towards Wilson before he focused back on his beer.

But Wilson didn't back down; not this time.

"Did you get her to stay?" he sounded a bit too excited for House's taste.

"No"

"Then what is it?" he was about to loose his temper with House.

House sighed putting the bottle down on the table leaning back but not looking away from the TV.

"We kissed, and then I went over to her place; we had sex."

Wilson almost chocked on the mouthful of beer he had been drinking when House had said that. Quickly he put the bottle down, wiped the beer from his shirt and watched the diagnostician carefully.

"Are you kidding?"

"No"

Again, House stayed calm, still looking at the monster truck running over the other cars.

"House!" Wilson almost screamed out like a girl, hardly containing composure, bouncing excitedly on the lounge.

"Hmm," now he turned around, finally facing Wilson who had the most brilliant look on his face. Somehow a strange mix of confusion, excitement and happiness.

"Seriously?"

"Yup," he answered shrugging, pulling out his Vicodin bottle.

"And she is not going to stay?"

"Don't think so," he dry swallowed two pills following them down with a big slug of his beer.

"Did you talk to her? I mean, are you going to do something?"

"Yes, I will," he got up, took his cane and went around the couch towards his bedroom, "I'm going to bed."

With that he entered his room, closed the door behind himself leaving a dumb-struck oncologist on his couch.

* * *

**So, after I had the luck to get sick again, I finally found time to pretty much finish this story yay It will have 13 chapters, so get ready for the last three ;)  
I hope you still enjoy reading and as always, _comments are love and the only form of criticism I can get_**


	11. Chapter 11

House sat down at the edge of his bed letting his cane drop to the floor. Taking deep breaths he wiped his bare hand over his stubble.

The last night seemed so surreal. Especially because he was the one who turned up at her door after work. Usually he would have hid from her until it was over, whatever it was.

He'd always thought Stacey was the love of his life, that they would grow old together. And when that bubble burst after his infarction he had sworn he would never let anyone affect him like this again.

But if he had to be honest, Cameron had already had an effect on him even without him noticing it. He cared. A lot.

What was more surprising was that he didn't mind.

But this did not mean this, what ever it was, would work out. It didn't mean that this would be a 'happily ever after' scenario. All it meant was that if they'd go through with it, he'd do her more damage than he had already done.

He had quite a restless night and got up at 7.30, hoping Wilson would still be asleep so he could sneak out to do a tour with his bike to clean his head. But unfortunately his best friend was already sitting on the couch, a cup of coffee in his hands, reading the newspaper.

"Morning"

House grumbled something taking his keys from the top of his piano.

"Where are you going?"

"Taking a tour with the bike,"

"Are you going to decide what to do with Cameron?"

"Sorry?" House wasn't sure he had heard that right.

"Cameron, what are you going to do?"

House shot imaginary daggers of fire towards him, but Wilson seemed to be oblivious to those.

"See you later," House said leaving his condo.

But the tour did not really help him at all. Usually he forgot about everything five minutes into it, but when he passed the city limits his thoughts trailed back to Cameron.

He had kissed her and they had gone way beyond that.

So what did that make them? Where did it leave them? Did she expect something more from him or would she mark it as a one off event, never to be spoken about again?

Why did this whole thing have to be so complicated?

Three hours, an aching leg and a grumbling stomach later he parked his bike back on its designated place in front of his apartment. Wilson was long gone, but when he limped over to the refrigerator he found a note attached over the take-out menus.

'Talk to her' was all it said. House stared at it for a few seconds, sighed and opened the door to pull out the left over from yesterday.

Cameron had spent her weekend with packing the last bits and pieces together, answering some mail and reading some long forgotten medicine journals she had planned to read for a long time.

At 7.45 that night she was having dinner, her last one in Princeton and after a long shower she lay in bed alone at 9.15. So there she lay, eyes wide open, staring at the shadows on the ceiling.

She wasn't sure what exactly kept her awake. On one hand it could be that she was moving tomorrow or the other hand what had happened with House was hanging above her like a giant rain cloud. Maybe it was a mix of both.

House had kissed her.

Something she had wanted for so long something which she had tried to deny whenever Chase or Foreman had brought it up. She had been getting good at her hiding feelings, maybe she had gotten too good, so much so she was even deceiving herself.

It had felt so good that night, to touch him, to feel him.

And yet it had felt somehow wrong.

She had forgotten about Joe, over everything, the one person who she should love more than anything. Who had helped her, who cared about her, always had. But of course she would choose the wrong way; just like all those times before.

It was not until 2 am when she finally was able to fall asleep, her thoughts being replaced by weird dreams about clowns and cakes.

The next day went by pretty quickly, she said goodbye to everyone down at the clinic, in the Immunology Department and some other staff she had worked with closely with during her time at PPTH.

It was about an hour before she would head home to meet Joe and she had to get back to the conference room, all her patients were being taken care of and she had already said goodbye to Cuddy. There were only a few small things to tidy up.

Chase, Foreman and Anna, whom Cuddy had told she would still work for House, were already waiting for her, huge grins on their faces.

They gave her farewell gifts: a leather-bound edition of "The collected works of Emily Dickson", her favourite writer from Chase, the special edition of "Gray's Anatomy" from Foreman and a book about New Haven from Anna.

She would definitely miss them but she was sure all three of them would get along with each other just fine. And even House would get used to Anna, eventually.

She gave them a hug and promised to meet them in the cafeteria in half an hour for a last coffee.

But at first she wanted to say goodbye to someone else.

The doctors left the room, giving her a last 'be careful' look leaving her alone in the room which seemed to be huge now.

The blinds were drawn in House's office, though the lights were on. He had managed to avoid Cameron the whole day, staying in his office or hiding at Wilson's. He did not even allow Cuddy to force him to do clinic duty because she was saying goodbye to the nurses.

Cameron took a few deep breaths and then went over to the door, knocking lightly.

"Busy," she heard his voice responding loudly.

She pondered whether she would say it was her, or if she should just went in anyway. She decided for the latter.

Slowly opening the door, Cameron saw House standing at his book shelve at the back of his office, reading.

"House?"

Now he turned around, obviously surprised that it was her, but quickly catching it and turning back to his book.

"I am here because I wanted to say goodbye," a slight shadow of a smile appeared on her face.

"Right," House put the book back and limped to his desk.

The look he gave her then, even for the tiniest second was telling her so much, again. More than he could ever tell her. But the look was gone as fast as it had appeared.

"Thank you … for everything. It was an honour to work for you, Dr. House," she offered her hand and when he stared at her. It was like two years ago all over again.

But then he took her hand and slowly shook it, still not looking at her for a moment. The gesture lasted for more than she wanted it to, when he suddenly lifted his face and pierced her with his ice-blue eyes.

It took her a while to register that neither of them was moving, but then she tried to pull back her hand but he didn't let go.

"House …" she trailed off when she looked back at him, he was still looking at her, but there it was again in his eyes, the truth.

"Do you want to leave?" he whispered, slowly drawing tiny circles in her palm with his thumb.

"Do you want me to?"

Now he looked away from her, yet still holding her hand.

"Do **you** want me to stay, House?"

She noticed the tears welling up in her eyes and it took all her composure to hold them back, while she was staring at him.

The next moment her hand was cold; he had let go of it, slowly turning around to the window, his back facing her.

She stared at him, expecting him to do something. But the moments went by and he just stood there. So Cameron stepped nearer, placing her hand on his back,

"I cannot keep on doing this, House. Either ask me to stay or I will leave."

Even through the two layers of fabric he was wearing she could feel his muscles stiffen.

Both were breathing in a slow rhythm.

After another minute or so, she sighed defeated. Slowly she let her hand fall down to her side again and tiny smile appeared on her face.

"It was worth a try, right?"

And with that she left House alone, heading to the conference room where she grabbed her stuff and went to the elevator.

Inside she took a deep breath and rubbed over her face with her palms, she would be okay. She always would be okay … in the end.

* * *

**Here is chapter 11 and I know the end is kind of mean to let you hang there but I promise chapter 12 will be up in no time.  
I hope you still enjoy reading and do not forget _comments are love and the only form of criticism I can get_  
**


	12. Chapter 12

When Wilson entered his office, he was still standing where Cameron had left him, god knows how long ago.

"What are you doing?" the oncologist went to him; looking around the office and following House's line of sight to see what he was looking at. But he did not see it.

"Huh?" House turned around looking at his friend, confused.

"House, are you okay?" Wilson was alarmed, immediately checking all visible criteria for anything that could be wrong with him.

"What time is it?"

"Uh … it is half past 3," Wilson stammered looking at his watch.

House sighed and let himself down on his chair, his face buried in his hands, Wilson sat down on the chair across House and stared at the diagnostician, waiting for him.

After a while House lifted his face and it was clearly visible that he was tired.

"Cameron?" Wilson tried carefully.

House gave him a look that clearly shouted "God dammit just leave me." He would have liked to have vocalised his thoughts, but his body was reluctant to act, so a nonverbal response would just have to do.

Wilson gave him a 'come on, you are going to tell my sooner or later' – look and leaned back in his chair when House got off his chair and paced to the window again.

"House, you know I am not going to leave you alone about this," the tone was almost threatening, but in a Wilson-ish kind of way.

"There is nothing to tell, Cameron came in earlier and said goodbye. End of story,"

"Why didn't you stop her?" Wilson almost yelled.

House now turned around; obviously he hadn't expected that, he stood there looking at anything but Wilson before he shrugged but when he saw Wilson's face out of the corner. He had no right to get angry at him. What ever was happening between him and Cameron was just that; between him and Cameron.

"What do you want me to do? Beg her to stay and tell her that I can not live another day without her?" House's voice was almost furious now, loud and filled with anger. But he wasn't angry at Wilson.

He was angry at himself.

"That would be a good start," Wilson grinned smugly, but House just stared at him, confused more than ever.

"I just think you should tell her to stay. Because if, and even if it is just for a moment, you would admit to yourself that you want her to stay, if you would tell her … she would stay, House, for you."

House looked at him, and Wilson slowly nodded as if to ensure him that he was right.

But he hesitated, not knowing what he should do. Sensing his struggle Wilson got up and went over to him,

"I know you'd rather be miserable and all, but what if this works out?"

"What if it doesn't?" House whispered, staring down at the floor.

"And what if it does? What if it just does? Wouldn't that be worth a try?"

House didn't look up.

Wilson sighed, turned around and left the office, heading to his own. He did pretty much everything he could; now it was House's decision. Did he want to be miserable and wallow in his own existence? Or did he actually want to try to be happy?

The days passed by and House did nothing. Just like Wilson had expected him to. But what was even worse, he was getting more and more depressed and miserable. This could not go on like this.

So when he left the hospital at noon on Friday he did not head home, instead he would try to do something for his best friend.

He felt uncomfortable whenever he tried to help House ever since Tritter happened. But what else could he do if not trying?

And he couldn't make things worse than they already were.

Cameron was watching the passing landscape from the passenger's seat. The whole three hours of driving she hadn't spoken much more than had been necessary, answering mostly with 'yes' or 'no' and the occasional 'maybe' whenever Joe asked her something.

This whole drive seemed to pass in a blur, time moving a bit slower than usual.

When she had left the hospital earlier it took all of her will power to not burst out in tears. She had told herself that she wasn't the little naïve immunologist she used to be when she first entered the hospital, hence shouldn't start crying.

But somehow leaving everyone she had been with for the last three years left an empty feeling.

Like she was forgetting something important and leaving it behind.

Maybe it was good that House hadn't told her to stay, at least now she could start again, without the burden of a boss who couldn't admit his feelings.

They passed the city sign and five minutes later arrived at the blue house in the middle of their new neighbourhood which would now be home.

Cameron got out of the truck and stretched.

The sun was hiding behind thick rain clouds, dropping the temperature down to a chilly fifty degrees.

"They said it is going to rain tonight, so why don't we start unloading right away?" Joe jumped down out of the vehicle sprinting over to her.

"Uh, yeah … just let me freshen up real quick. Be right back."

Cameron smiled back at him as he nodded and took his keys.

When she entered the house she immediately closed the door, leaning against it. Before she could move she needed to take a few deep breaths and look around.

A lot of Joe's stuff was already across the living room, but still in the cardboard boxes. He had told her he would wait for her so they could decide together.

Slowly she climbed up the stairs and locked the door of the bathroom. Inside she leaned over the sink carefully looking at herself in the mirror.

She looked tired and exhausted.

Why was she freaking out like this? It should be easy, or at least easier. She splashed some water onto her face and dried it with a towel before she headed back down, much more composed.

This could work; she just had to force herself to make it work.

One and a half hours later when they had almost unloaded the boxes it started to rain. At first it was only little drops but their amount increased with every minute. They tried to finish as quickly as they could the truck had to be back in about forty minutes, so when they were finally done both were soaking wet.

"Okay, let's get the truck back before the storm gets too heavy," Joe said and took the keys from the shelves in the kitchen, where he and Cameron were having a cup of coffee to warm up.

Cameron followed him with the car and half an hour later they were back home, finally changing into dry and comfortable clothes.

The following days went by quickly. Cameron got settled in as much as possible, rearranging the furniture, checking out the local malls and restaurants while Joe went to work.

By Thursday she was glad she would be back at work herself by Monday, because being home pretty much drove her nuts.

It was Friday afternoon when Joe started to hook up the TV and the computer, while Cameron dried her hair after a shower. She threw a quick glance out of the window when she saw a car stopping in front of the house.

A minute later the bell ringed.

"I'll get it," she yelled running downstairs.

She almost jumped when she saw Wilson standing in front of her.

"Wilson? What are you doing here? Did something happen?"

"No," he tried to calm her down with a friendly smile.

It seemed to work, she did slow down her breathing.

"I am here, because I wanted to talk to you," he lifted an eyebrow and she immediately knew what this was about.

Cameron looked at the male doctor for a moment, her face passing through all kinds of emotions.

"Be right back," she said and ran up the stairs.

Joe was sitting in the middle of cables, reading a user manual when she entered the bedroom.

"Hey, who was it?" he looked up at her, smiling.

"Oh, an old friend who wants to grab a coffee. I'm going to go for an hour, okay?"

"Yeah, of course. Have fun." With that he turned back to his manual.

Cameron quickly grabbed her purse and went out to Wilson's car. She knew this was probably the wrong thing to do, but she had to find out what he had to say.

Ten minutes later they were sitting in a small café outside of New Haven, the steaming fluid in big cups in front of them, the rain still pouring heavily outside.

None of them said anything. The minutes passed.

"He's miserable," Wilson finally said and when Cameron looked up at him she saw him staring outside.

"That's some news and not my concern," she scoffed, fiddling with the serviette lying next to her cup.

"He yells at Dr. Stevens without any reason, he stays in his office for the whole day without doing anything. The case they are currently working on … Cuddy had to force him to take it,"

"Is that why you are here?" she replied with nonchalant.

"He misses you,"

"Really, is that right?" sarcasm was dripping from her voice.

"He would never admit it, I know that. But truth is he does. And it is going to destroy him,"

"So what am I supposed to do? Come back and pretend that everything is okay? And just keep going like before?"

Wilson just looked at her, his look a mixture of sadness, understanding and pleading.

"And where does that leave me? I left because I could not do this anymore. I told him what I feel; I basically told him that if he told me to stay, I would. He didn't do anything,"

"Look, I've known House for so many years now; he makes a lot of mistakes for that matter. Most of the time he does not even realize it. And yet those mistakes break him. They broke him because of Stacey," he took a deep breath, "And seeing him now … it is even worse. He may not realize it but he needs you,"

Cameron shook her head, then got up,

"I'm sorry."

With that she put down a 5 dollar bill and left the restaurant. Wilson quickly took his coat and followed her outside in the rain. He found her outside, phoning a cab.

She hung up and tried to avoid his look.

"Allison"

"No, don't," she warned.

"He needs a second chance that is all I am asking for."

"A second chance? I think he already had way too many of those," she laughed humourlessly, "Wilson, you are a great friend for doing this, but truth is: It's over, I am tired. I just can not let this happen all over again."

At that moment the cab appeared and stopped in front of them, Cameron got in but Wilson held the door open,

"I don't know what will happen if you were to come back. But if you stay away, I know that it will definitely break him for good."

Cameron looked up at him, her eyes wet and tired. Then she leaned forward and grabbed the door, closing it.

House was sitting in his chair, his eyes closed and dozing. Someone knocked on his door for the fifth time in two hours. He refused to open the door, why couldn't people take a hint when you wanted to be alone?

Ignorant idiots.

It was Friday afternoon and he would only have to hide for two more hours before he could leave. But tonight he would not go home, because that was basically the same as Wilson annoying the hell out of him.

No, he would drive to this lousy, dirty bar and have a couple of drinks with some guy called "Ed". That was his understanding of a good night right now.

Another knock. He wondered if one of his minions would get Cuddy again, who in turn would get the janitor to open the locked door like yesterday.

Sometimes it was just way too easy to annoy people.

Five o'clock rolled by and it was time to leave, he got up, unlocked his door and strode out heading for the elevators. The new minion, what's-her-name-again wanted to call him back, but Chase must have held her back, obviously deemed not important.

Only half an hour later he was sitting at the bar, with his second whiskey. When he had left the hospital he had been afraid Wilson would catch up with him but obviously he had left the hospital earlier than House himself.

He couldn't care less.

Some old football game was on TV, but his thoughts drifted back to the topic he wanted to avoid by coming here. So instead of letting it take up his mind, he emptied his glass and ordered another one.

After another glass he felt the alcohol spreading through his body, warming it from inside and pushing out every unwelcome thought.

When Cameron came home, she paused in the hallway downstairs, taking a few deep breaths to steady herself.

It took her almost five minutes until she was able to move again. She shouldn't even react like this. It was futile and childish.

So instead of thinking about this afternoon she went into the kitchen, drank a glass of water and went upstairs to help Joe.

The next few days were not so good for the immunologist, what Wilson had said that day in the coffee shop plagued her.

When she was with Joe she tried to be happy and to smile but every night the tears just rolled down her cheeks in the dark, her face pressed into her pillow, her hands clenched into the blanket.

As much as she tried to hide her emotional state, she obviously wasn't very good at it.

"Ally?"

Cameron and Joe were sitting in the kitchen, having breakfast on Sunday morning.

"Ally?"

Cameron looked up at him, still not really back in reality.

"You okay?"

"Hmm?"

"What is going on with you?"

"I'm okay," it was barely a whisper, her smile slight and forced.

"It's about House, isn't it?" Joe sighed.

House felt the blood starting to drip down from his lip, mixing up with the heavy rain, pouring down hard.

"And here I thought you could take more than that, asshole," the man in front of him spit out, smirking smugly.

House was leaning against the brick wall, wiping the blood away from his lips that had collided with the man's fist just a few seconds ago.

He wondered how he had managed to offend some drunken rocker in less than an hour after he had entered the bar. The alcohol was slowly loosing his effect on his body, though it took some strength to get up.

"Mike, take it easy on him. He's wasted, leave him alone and come back inside," some other guy yelled from the door.

"He called me 'idiot'," Mike tried to defend himself.

"And you are one, everybody knows that,"

Suddenly Mike started to laugh, then looked at him and finally vanished back inside.

Why hadn't he done that when he had called him that?

House tried to steady himself against the wall, the wound had just a slow bleed by now but he started to feel dizzy.

He pulled out his cell phone, and slowly dialled a number he wouldn't have thought he would call this weekend.

"Wilson," the other end replied.

"Hey, get your ass out of bed, I need a lift," House said.

"Are you drunk?"

"Are you?" House snorted.

"Where are you?"

House heard him sigh, then gave him the address and promised not to walk away until he got there.

When Wilson unlocked the door of House's condo, he slowly limped inside. He wasn't really drunk at all anymore but somehow he knew if Wilson caught on he would stay and ask a lot of questions.

So he slumped down on his couch, closed his eyes, and started to snore slightly. It was when he heard the door slam shut he opened them again, staring at the dark floor in front of him.

He might as well sleep like this anyway. Maybe he wouldn't wake up again, hopefully.

* * *

**Alright, only one chapter left. I know I am evil with the cliffhangers but I hope the last chapter will make up for it. I am still working on it right now, but since tomorrow is my day off I probably will finish it by then and you'll have it out on monday, the latest. Deal?And as long as you wait for it ... leave me a comment. Comments are love and so are those who leave them **

**And I would like to thank everyone who reads the story, I hope you had fun and I hope you will enjoy Chapter 13 **


	13. Chapter 13

"_I__t is about House, isn't it?"_

Joe looked at her softly.

Cameron opened her mouth to say something but closed it again when she saw his face.

"I see," he got up and started to walk around. "So, when are you going to leave?"

She looked up at him, tears now dwelling up in her eyes.

"I am not going to leave."

"Ally …," he started shaking his head, stopping with his still back facing her.

"What are you talking about?" she noticed her voice sounded almost despaired.

"You're crying at night and you are walking around like a ghost at day," now he turned around, his face filled with sadness.

Cameron just stared at him, unsure of what to do or what to say. She was almost afraid of what he would say now. He took another deep breath and sat down across her, taking her hands into his.

"Listen, I tried to wrap my head around this for the past few days. I tried to ignore it. But this is not good; for either of us,"

He waited for her to say something but she just kept on staring at him so he continued.

"That old friend of yours, obviously that had something to do with House, you're upset. And the whole moving away shouldn't do that to you, Ally," he smiled.

"I'm not upset," she tried to sound determined but somehow she completely failed, her voice sounding more like she was choking.

"Ally …" he got up and pulled her up as well, wrapping his arms around her tightly when she started to cry.

They remained silent for some moments, trying to calm down and getting a clear head between them.

Cameron was the one to break the silence in the end.

"What now?"

"Well, you're not staying here."

"Joe …"

"No, don't, Ally. It is okay, it really is. I love you and it makes me sad to see you unhappy and being here … doesn't make you happy,"

A sympathetic smile appeared on his face, was touching her cheek with his fingertips,

"I've seen you two together, it's like the whole world around you stops moving, like nothing else matters anymore," a friendly sigh, "I wished it would be the same when you were with me…but it isn't,"

Cameron's eyes filled with tears, threatening to flood over the brim,

"I …," she chocked.

Again, he wrapped his arms around her, rocking her slightly.

"But what if it won't work out? You have seen him, he is …,"

"A jerk? An ass?" Joe suggested, both starting to laugh slightly.

"Yeah. Being with him … it's like a guarantee that he will break me."

"And yet, you want to try it, don't you?"

Cameron knew it was the truth nodding slowly against his chest.

"It may sound cheesy, but some things are worth getting your heart broken for," Joe whispered against her forehead kissing it gently.

They remained silent for long while, not saying anything just enjoying the closeness.

"But, you know I love you," she said, looking up at him.

"Of course, this doesn't change anything. I want you to be happy, and if he is what makes you happy …," he trailed off and kissed her forehead again.

She pressed her head against his chest, closing her eyes,

"I am sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for."

When they parted, Cameron wiped away her tears, smiling bravely at Joe then quickly glancing at the clock on the wall.

"Go," Joe smiled brightly.

"What?" she quickly looked back at him.

"Go!" he repeated.

Cameron looked at him for a second and then started to smile, giving him a quick kiss on his cheek and running upstairs.

Five minutes later she had changed into a pair of jeans, a sweater and was carrying a small bag with a change of clothes.

At the door she hesitated,

"You're not hesitating, you are stalling," Joe grinned smugly.

Cameron turned around, smiling brightly,

"Thank you for everything."

With that she opened the door and was gone.

Joe sat down at the table.

He was sure he had done the right thing. Cameron had been through way too much in her life, already. She deserved some happiness. And if he would be honest, really down to earth honest, he knew that it was the right decision to make, even for him. Cameron had always been more a sister to him, than anything else. Of course he loved her, and of course he loved to be with her, but somehow the feelings he had before Matthew had died were different then the feelings he had when he saw her the first time again a couple of months ago.

This was good, the way it was. For everyone.

When House woke up the next morning he had a headache. He took care of it with three Vicodin.

The rest of the day he spent playing music on his piano, watching some movies, from which he could not recall the title afterwards

And with drinking more whiskey.

It was after midnight when he was sitting at his piano, pondering about whether he should have another whiskey.

The last week had been even more miserable, mostly spent in his office where not even Dr. 'call me Anna' Stevens would dare to talk to him. Everyday Wilson had tried to talk some sense into him, but it was futile, which both of them knew.

When he looked at the almost empty bottle of whiskey and the five pills of Vicodin lying next to it he almost had to laugh. He was in this same exact situation six years ago, only this time he was feeling even more miserable.

There was no doubt that he would hit the ground hard this time.

Who was he kidding? It probably had been too late for him, anyway.

He stared at the bottle for another two minutes, playing some tunes of Bach, he decided to get some sleep. There was still tomorrow.

It was sometime around noon when House woke up; his mouth dry and right thigh aching horribly. He almost crawled out of bed towards his bathroom.

Taking a big sip of water directly from the faucet he swallowed two Vicodin rubbing his stubble. He heard the rain outside, dripping on the windows. When would this bloody rain ever stop?

Grumpily limping back to his bed, he grabbed his cane and walked in his kitchen where he made some coffee.

Half an hour later he decided to stop staring at the newspaper from Friday and taking a long shower to ease off the residue pain in his thigh the Vicodin didn't take care of.

So when the water poured down on him, he started to relax a bit.

Only 5 minutes later he heard someone knocking on the door. At first he did not bother to react, because it was probably Wilson looking if he was still alive. When he got out of the shower ten minutes later the knocking had stopped. Wrapping a dry towel around his waist he went out towards the kitchen.

He slowly limbed to the kitchen, opened the fridge and took out a bottle of beer.

"Isn't it a bit too early for that?"

House jumped back, the bottle in his hand slipping through his fingers falling bare wood floor.

Slowly he stepped back from the broken glass and the fridge door to see that Allison Cameron was standing in the middle of his living room, grinning smugly.

House just stared at her.

"Wow, you're speechless. I didn't know that I would ever get to see that," the grin widened.

Finally recovering, he noticed that he was standing in the middle of the kitchen, half naked, staring at his ex-employee.

"How did you get in here?"

She shrugged, the smile still all over her face,

"You taught me a lot."

"Right," now even he had to grin, "I'm just going to change."

With that he limbed back to his bedroom as quickly as his thigh allowed him to closing the door behind himself.

At first he sat down on his bed, taking some deep breaths to calm his racing heart.

Cameron was in his apartment. She was here when she was supposed to be in New Haven.

What was she doing here?

He dragged on some new clothes. It was time to face the music, so to speak.

"So, what brings you here?" his voice sounded nonchalant when he entered the living room, now wearing jeans and a black band t-shirt.

Cameron was leaning against the piano, a slight smile wiped across her face she was watching him,

"I am back"

Her voice sounded even more nonchalant. House wondered if hers was as false as his had been barely ten seconds ago.

"Back as in 'I quit my new job and now I am back' back?

"Just … back," she shrugged straightening herself.

House nodded, pursing his lips while he sat down on his couch. He hadn't expected that to happen, but tried everything to hide his surprise. Though he had no clue if it was working at all.

"What about Yale?"

Cameron did not respond, just shrugged grinning.

"You're kidding?" he was actually mildly shocked and Cameron noticed.

"It's not what I want."

House frowned, trying to get some order in his thoughts,

"Let's see: You get all crazy about leaving your work and moving away with your boyfriend just a week ago and now you are saying that you don't want it?"

His look was filled with curiosity as he looked at her, while she slowly walked from the piano to sit on the table in front of him.

"He's not my boyfriend"

On that House narrowed his eyes and tilted his head to the side, pondering about her words.

"You seriously left everything behind for him only to suddenly realize he is not your boyfriend?"

"I never wanted **him** …" she trailed off grinning, the tips of her fingers lightly brushing his knees.

His eyes moved down to her hands and back to her eyes in an instant. They were the most sparkling blue now.

Her smile was a soft one, indicating what she was trying to say with her gesture.

The moment lasted long enough until House broke it by getting up quickly.

"You shouldn't have done that," he said harsh, striding over to the kitchen.

"What?" Cameron was left on the table, completely dazzled.

"Quitting Yale, leaving New Haven"

Cameron stared at him in disbelief, unable to form any coherent thought for a few moments.

Finally she sighed.

"I haven't."

Now it was House's turn to look completely dazzled, so Cameron continued to explain,

"I was supposed to sign the contract by Monday and all of my stuff is still in New Haven"

"Then what exactly are you doing here? Masochistic, much?" he mocked, leaning against the sink while she pressed her arm against the doorframe.

"Unbelievable," Cameron sighed exhausted. Could she really believe he was doing this now? What was that guy thinking?

But he said nothing; he just kept staring at her.

She laughed humourlessly, a thing she hadn't done before she had started to work for House. But then again she was doing a lot of things she hadn't done before.

"I don't believe I thought this was a good idea, even for a single moment. I should have known you would do this. I probably thought you would just for this once be a human being and do something … I don't know, something that would make you less miserable."

House sighed exasperated, lowering his face just to look up at her a few seconds later, his voice a bit louder now.

"Would you stop trying to change me? Maybe I like everything the way it is," he challenged her.

That was when Cameron started to laugh, it was just for a few seconds but it was much needed. When she stopped, she looked back at House,

"You know, it's funny. Three years and you still think all I want to do is change you."

"Well, you do."

"Hmm, strange. Why is it then that I never wanted you to? When you asked me why I like you did it ever occur to you that I might started to like you because of the way you are?"

Her voice was starting to get louder and harsher.

"And I hate it. I hate feeling this way. I would give a lot to stop feeling something for … you and instead feel this way for Joe. But I don't."

House didn't say any thing; he was just staring at her with his blue piercing eyes.

She scoffed, shaking her head. Then she took a deep breath,

"I don't even know, why I am still doing this," she said to herself, lowering her glace, her voice now calmer.

"Maybe I am even more pathetic than I thought I was," she raised her head looking back at him, a time passed until she slowly went over to him, leaning up to him, whispering something in his ear,

"Everything you're not afraid of is not worth trying for."

With that she started to kiss him.

It was a gentle kiss, her lips barely touching his and he did not know how long it went on, but when she broke away the look on her face tore something apart inside him.

Two years ago it had happened the same way, when she had looked at him before she had left the first time. Just this time it was even more painful.

Then she just turned around and left.

House closed his eyes, hindering the tears in his eyes from falling down.

And what he was about to do now was speaking against him being an ass, nonetheless he did it.

So instead of sitting down on his couch, having another glass of scotch and two or three Vicodin, he took a deep breath and for once in his life he tried to do the right thing.

He found her on the stairs in front of his condo, her face buried deep in her hands. He couldn't tell whether she was crying or if it was the rain dripping down her slender figure.

Stepping down the stairs he sat down next to her, his cane leaned against the wall next to him.

He didn't say anything or even move, he just stared at her. They were getting wetter every second.

"You're not pathetic," he whispered and smiled slightly.

It wasn't until she raised her head, that House realized what made him come here. Slightly touching her cheek with his thumb, he smiled.

"I'm the problem here, I know that," he sighed and let go of her cheek. "This thing is not going to work because of me."

"How do you know?"

This time House scoffed.

"I think you know that"

Cameron lowered her face and he heard her sighing. But then she looked up at him, grinning. She obviously wasn't going to give up so easily.

"Well, who is telling you it's not going to work this time? "

"Because I know I'm going to do something to completely piss you off, Cameron. You're going to wish you would've left," his face looked grim now.

"What makes you think that?"

"Because that's who I am," he got up furious. But most of all he was furious at himself.

Cameron slowly got up, too and took his hand stopping him, calming him down. She raised her gaze to look at him.

"I don't care what will happen tomorrow, next month, or next year. I know who you are, and yet I want to be with you, doesn't that count for anything?"

A smug grin was visible all over her face, she was feeling very self-confident.

"And … I am not Stacey"

At the first moment she regretted mentioning her name but when she saw him grinning she let go of the breath she didn't know she was holding.

"No, you are definitely not," he chuckled softly.

Then his expression became serious again.

"Let's go inside."

With that he took her hand and leaded her back inside.

* * *

**A/N: Okay, so before you start making voodoo dolls, let me say that this is not the end of the story, just the final chapter of "Collisions". I decided to write a sequel. surprise**

So with all the exams coming up I'll probably won't be able to start before july 14th. (which means I probably will start before anyway, but I shouldn't)  
I am still planning, so right now I'd rather shut up about my plans with this story, but I hope you are not mad, because I am really excited about the sequel :)

Anyway, thank you so much again for reading and for those who do, for reviewing. Your comments always make my day hugs everyone


End file.
